AVON – Drivers using Route 4 in the Strong, Avon and Phillips area may want to allow some extra travel time for the next several weeks, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.

“We’re going to be detouring Route 4 traffic by way of routes 145 and 149 between Strong and Phillips while we make improvements to a bridge on Route 4 in Avon,” said Vince Banaitis of the DOT.

Banaitis says Route 4 between Strong and Phillips will be limited to “local traffic only” from now until July 2, unless the contractor completes the bridge work before then.

“Naturally, he’s going to try to finish it ahead of schedule if he can, but our timetable allows him until July 2 to complete the work,” he said. He said that a second Route 4 detour is planned sometime after the Fourth of July to allow work on a second bridge on the same section of Route 4.

Both bridge projects are part of a larger contract to improve nearly four miles of Route 4. The project area begins 1.7 miles west of the Strong-Avon town line and extends northwest for 3.8 mile. The overall contract for the entire project, awarded to E.L. Vining and Son Inc. of Farmington on a bid of just over $3.8 million, calls for completion of work on all of the improvements by late October.