NEWRY – Drivers using Route 26 between Route 2 and Grafton Notch State Park should use extra care approaching Branch Brook Bridge in Newry.
The Maine Department of Transportation has started work to replace the 42-foot span that was built in 1919.
Rather than require a lengthy detour during construction, traffic is to be limited to a temporary single-lane bridge.
Branch Brook Bridge carries traffic over the brook about seven miles north of Route 2 and three miles south of the park boundary.
On Tuesday, approaches to the bridge sported twin sets of red, yellow, and green traffic signals.
“We’ll be maintaining alternating one-way traffic across the temporary bridge, with traffic signals on each end of the project area regulating traffic flow,” said Donald Falardeau, the MDOT project construction manager, in a release.
Signs are to be erected on Route 26 to warn drivers of the work zone.
“Drivers should slow down and approach the area with the expectation that the traffic light may be red, and that they will need to stop before crossing the bridge,” he said.
“Even when the light is green, they should maintain a slow speed and proceed with caution, for their own safety, as well as the protection of our workers,” he added.
The project contract was awarded to Technical Construction Inc. of Turner on a bid of nearly $619,000. The work is to be completed by Nov. 1.
Last year, then MDOT project manager Ben Foster said the bridge was structurally sound, but not wide enough by current standards.
It carries an average of 970 vehicles per day across the brook, Foster said.
But current 20-year estimates upped the average to 1,300 to 1,400 cars and commercial trucks per day.
The proposed plan called for the new structure to provide two 11-foot-wide travel lanes with 3-foot-wide paved shoulders on either side.
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