The speed limit has been officially reduced for the length of the project.

Drivers using Route 26 in Gray, New Gloucester and Poland can expect to see construction crews return to a highway improvement project there beginning Monday, April 5, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.

“This project actually started last spring, but most of the work then was done on two new sections of roadway away from the existing highway,” said Bob Pelletier, MDOT’s resident engineer on the project. “This year the majority or the work will be along the existing roadway and will have a greater impact on the traveling public.”

The project begins at the Gray-New Gloucester town line and ends just south of the Route 26 intersection with Route 122 in Poland.

Pelletier says this year’s effort will begin with a drainage crew, an excavation crew and a cleanup crew working at various locations. Landscaping is scheduled to begin in early May.

“In addition to continuing to work on the bypasses, we’ll start work tying the bypasses into the existing route at the Gray end, the mid-point connector at Abby Lane and the Shaker Bog end in early June, with plans to open the bypass to traffic by the end of June. The existing roadway from Shaker Bog to Route 122 will be completely reconstructed, with that section scheduled to be open to traffic on the new pavement by late August. Once we get traffic onto the bypasses, we’ll upgrade the existing Route 26 roadway from the Gray-New Gloucester town line to Outlet Road,” he said.

Pelletier said because of the level of activity, the speed limit has been officially reduced for the length of the project.

The contract for the project, awarded to H.E. Sargent of Stillwater, on a bid of just over $9.5 million, calls for full completion of the work by early November.