BANGOR (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to invalidate a state law that calls for the state to maintain 11 motor vehicle access points along the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

In his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock concurred with a federal magistrate’s earlier decision recommending dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Charles FitzGerald of Atkinson and Kenneth Cline of Bar Harbor.

The men filed the complaint last year contending that a 2006 state law conflicted with the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, a federal law under which Allagash was designated a wild river area in 1970.

The state law codified a list of 11 locations where visitors could drive to or near the river’s edge to launch a boat. The bill, which was hotly debated in the Legislature, also designated six bridges in the waterway as permanent structures.

In her recommendation last August, U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk said the Allagash is owned and operated by the state, giving Maine officials the right to set management policies for the 92-mile waterway.

The federal government doesn’t have the power to pre-empt state control simply because the Allagash is included within the federal Wild and Scenic River program, Kravchuk wrote. Rather, federal officials can recommend management changes to the state or seek to remove the river from the program.

In his decision, Woodcock did not expand on Kravchuk’s arguments.

Bruce Merrill, a Portland attorney who represents FitzGerald and Cline, said he first needs to talk to his clients, but expects to appeal the case to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Woodcock’s ruling was the second defeat in less than a week for those who want to limit the number of access points to and bridges over the river.

The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission last week rejected attempt to block the state from reconstructing a logging road bridge at Henderson Brook in the Allagash.