DIXFIELD – Just over $4 million is planned for reconstructing the next section of Route 2 in Dixfield.
That includes engineering costs, right-of-way purchases as well as construction.
Heath Cowan, Maine Department of Transportation project manager, outlined the plans before 50 people at a public hearing Wednesday night.
Planned for work during the 2005-06 construction season is 1.85 miles, beginning where the current one left off and ending a few hundred feet past the intersection with Stone Road.
Just over 30 slivers of private property will be purchased by the MDOT to make way for the alignment of the sometimes curvy, hilly stretch of highway. The most significant alignment is on a 1,000-foot, westerly section near Stone Road and Newton Brook.
Cowan said the bridge crossing the brook will be widened from the current 24 feet to 40 feet. Both lanes of the entire construction project will be 12-feet wide with 8-foot wide shoulders.
Although money for devising engineering plans and right-of-way research is available now, whether funding for the actual project comes through won’t be known for some time. But the department wants to get everything in place now so the project can be advertised in October 2005. The federal government will fund 80 percent of the project’s cost with the state picking up the remainder.
Most questions involved the state’s responsibility in land taking payments, and wells or septic systems that might be affected by the project.
He said appraisals will be made, then payments given to landowners. If the landowner doesn’t agree with the amount, he may take his complaint to the Maine State Claim Commission. Any disagreements, however, will not hold up the project.
He said state engineers will also survey wells and septic systems in the planned rights of way before construction and after. If damage or contamination is caused during the project, or if either must be moved to make way for the realignment, the state will compensate the property owner.
The MDOT will take written comments on the proposed project during the next two weeks before continuing with engineering and right-of-way work.
eadams@sunjournal.com
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