OXFORD – Hoping to ease traffic flow and prevent fender benders, the Maine Department of Transportation intends to widen a stretch of Route 26 between Welchville Junction and Skeetfield Road.
Design and engineering plans for the overall $3.5 million project are being completed now, according to Dale Doughty, assistant director of DOT’s Bureau of Planning in Augusta. Construction could begin in the summer of 2008, he said Thursday.
The state is actually developing two plans for projects that would overlap between the Skeetfield Road and Welchville Junction, which is at the northerly intersection of Route 121.
State civil engineer Steve Bodge said Friday the projects will cover approximately two miles. Much of the road will be repaved, straightened or improved where necessary, and widened to include bigger shoulders and a center turning lane.
“The center lane will be, if I had to guess, 1.5 out of the 2 miles,” Bodge said.
There are no plans for new traffic lights at this time, although a blinking light at the intersection of Skeetfield Road will remain. Bodge said because Route 26 is an arterial highway, the state will try to keep the number of lights along its length low.
Bodge said about 12,000 vehicles travel over this section of Route 26 in Oxford every day. That number is expected to grow to 18,000 vehicles within 20 years.
Doughty said Route 26 has been subject to improvements lately because growth is expected along the highway, and because it leads to areas of economic importance. Also, he said, “Those pieces of the highway are not built to modern highway standards.”
Town Manager Michael Chammings agreed the changes are needed.
“Right now 26, as you know, is overwhelmed and we’re growing like a weed,” he said last week.
Ground already has been broken for a new New Balance Factory Store and Norway Savings Bank building within the area in question. The region also is awaiting the development of a tech park there.
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