TURNER – Drivers using Route 117 in Buckfield and Turner can expect longer delays at an ongoing 6-mile road improvement project.

The project begins at the intersection of routes 117 and 140 in Buckfield and extends east along Route 117 to Route 4 in Turner.

“More significant traffic disruption and delays should be expected this summer than drivers encountered during the work we did last fall,” said Jeffrey Wallace, the Maine Department of Transportation’s construction manager for the project.

Besides more intense construction activities, MDOT will be putting in a 13-foot-wide, 7-foot-deep box culvert at Bog Brook, which crosses Route 117 about a half-mile east of the Route 124 intersection. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in that area for an extended period of time. A temporary traffic signal will be installed, but significant delays may occur as work progresses.

The road work will include efforts to eliminate or reduce humps and dips and to ease curves in the existing roadway, Wallace said.

“In some locations, we’ll be putting a variable-depth layer of gravel on top of the existing roadway to form the base for new pavement, while in other locations, we’ll be building a completely new roadbed,” he said.

A deeply buried drainage pipe on the Buckfield end of the project will require a traffic detour. The route will be clearly marked, but drivers may want to allow a little extra travel time, Wallace said.

The contract for the project, awarded to K & K Excavation of Turner on a bid of nearly $5.8-million, calls for completion of the project by the end of June 2008.