Technical Construction will replace the Andover Dam Bridge.
UPTON – A Turner firm got the nod Monday from the state to replace the structurally deficient Andover Dam Bridge this summer.
Technical Construction Inc. won the contract with a $504,259 offer on the Maine Department of Transportation project.
The bridge carries East B Hill Road traffic over the Swift Cambridge River a little more than a mile east of Route 26 near the Maine-New Hampshire border.
Built in 1936, the 50-foot-long bridge is way past due to be replaced, Project Manager Wayne Frankhauser said.
Over the years, it’s been helped along by extensive patching.
The latest major patch job, in 1997, reduced the bridge roadway to 14 feet and one travel lane.
The project scope includes earth and approach work, hot mix asphalt, riprap, steel H-beam piles, steel bridge rail, precast abutment and approach slab, prestressed structural concrete box beam, and incidental work.
According to a transportation department press release, work is to start anytime. Oct. 30 is the project completion date.
The job is expected to inconvenience East B Hill Road drivers for up to eight days. Traffic will be barred for two four-day intervals.
That means instead of driving the roughly 12 miles from Upton to Andover by way of the road, drivers would be forced to detour about 36 miles from Upton to Andover via Newry, Hanover and Rumford Point.
The road is an important link between Route 26 and Andover for forest products and recreational travel. About 100 cars use the road on an average day.
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