DIXFIELD – Work is winding down for the season on the $2.7 million Route 2 highway project.
Within the next couple of weeks, no flaggers, machinery or other equipment will stop or direct traffic that travels on the two-mile stretch of reconstructed highway.
Original plans had called for completing the entire project by Nov. 1, but a series of small delays throughout the construction season has led the Maine Department of Transportation to end work now, then finish the job next spring.
MDOT construction manager Ernie Gallant said some unstable and erratic ledges in various sections of the project, particularly near the intersection with the Common Road, required more work than originally expected.
“Ledges here have a lot of seams. When they were blasted out, more rubble resulted,” said Gallant.
Also, he said, some utility poles weren’t relocated when they were scheduled to be, slowing construction progress.
Before contractors M&H Logging of Rangeley finish up for the winter, however, guardrails will be installed, temporary center and side stripes painted, and several driveways whose slopes were affected by the construction project paved.
Shoulders will remain gravel and erosion prevention materials applied to the slopes.
When work begins in the spring, which will be when temperatures are consistently a minimum of 50 degrees, the entire stretch will get a fourth coat of paving, the shoulders will be paved and the road receive a final striping. Gallant said about six weeks of work in the spring should wrap up the project.
Drivers who use that section of the Route 2 will then get a break from construction work for about 18 months.
Plans are under way to reconstruct a 1.85-mile section of Route 2, beginning where the current project left off. That project is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005, about a year later than originally expected. Funding was diverted to other projects, said Gallant.
A public hearing on the next Route 2 highway project is set for 7 p.m. on Nov. 19 at Dirigo Middle School.
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