RUMFORD — More than $45 million worth of roadwork and bridge replacement and jobs aplenty for Maine workers is either under way in Oxford, Androscoggin and Franklin counties or expected to start this summer or fall.

In Rumford, the Maine Department of Transportation will put three Route 108 projects out to bid on Aug. 4, for which financing is estimated at $1.1 million, Mark Hume, MDOT Region 3 engineer, said Thursday in Dixfield.

These include making a turning lane into the new Rumford Industrial Park ($700,000), realigning Wyman Hill Road to make a T-road intersection ($200,000) and removing the ledge around the corner by Rumford’s NewPage Inc. paper mill ($200,000).

“The Wyman Hill Road intersection is what we call a ‘skew,’” Hume said. “That means it’s not perpendicular to 108. Like we do to all of our roads, we want it to come in at a 90-degree angle so drivers are not looking over their shoulder to see if anything is coming, and a lot of times, people just cut through the skew without slowing.”

A $3.3 million project to replace the Mexico-Dixfield bridge over the Webb River on Route 2 and reconstruct a quarter mile of road on the Mexico side of the bridge and up over the hill will go out to bid in October, Hume said.

“They might get a little of that work done this fall, but the bulk of the work will start next year,” he said.

The bridge project itself is estimated at $2.3 million.

Work continues further west on Route 2 in Gilead, where three projects totaling $12.2 million are expected to be completed in July and November.

Two of those projects, totaling $4.8 million and about $4.9 million, involve highway reconstruction, while the third, at $2.5 million, replaces the Wild River Bridge.

The work “takes a big yank out of the road,” Hume said.

Just over 19 miles of Route 27 to Main Street in Kingfield from Route 4 in Farmington will be repaved this year in two projects totaling $2.97 million.

Paving contractor Bruce A. Manzer Inc. of Anson won the job to do the 5½-mile stretch from just past Route 146 in New Portland to Kingfield with a low bid of about $278,000, Hume said.

That work, which starts soon, is expected to be completed by June 12. The other project, totaling 13.8 miles at an estimated cost of $2.7 million, just went out to bid.

Another Routes 2, 4 and 27 project by the new Rite-Aid Pharmacy in Farmington involves shoving two 520-foot-long plastic pipes into the Abbot Brook culvert to prevent having to dig up the pavement. Grout will be placed in the gap between the 60-inch plastic pipes and 72-inch existing pipe, which crosses the entire intersection and the park-and-ride lot.

“This gives us a new pipe without having to dig up the intersection, which is a very busy intersection with about 15,000 vehicles a day going through,” Hume said.

In Eustis, work starts next week on a $320,000 project to reconstruct about a mile of Route 27.

Work to grind 1½ inches of about a mile of pavement on Route 26 in Norway and Oxford and put it back in with pavement will start on May 1 and end that month. Lewiston contractor R. C. and Sons Paving Inc. won the project with a low bid of $389,000 to do two travel lanes and a turning lane, Hume said.

What’s unusual about the project is that it will be done at night.

“Daytime traffic there runs around 20,000 vehicles a day, so it’s really busy,” Hume said. “That’s why we’re doing that at night. They should have all the grinding done in a week, and it should take a couple of nights to pave it all back if they have decent temperatures.”

Among the other projects already under way are:

• $8.6 million to reconstruct nearly 7 miles of Route 9 from Lisbon to Sabattus. Work started last year is expected to finish in July 2011.

• $7.8 million for highway and bridge replacement on Route 26 in Poland.

• $2.4 million for reconstruction on 2.3 miles of Route 117 in Turner. Work began last year and will finish by Aug. 28. Paving begins on June 1.

• $1.9 million to replace the Canadian National Railway overpass bridge on Routes 4, 100 and 202 in Auburn. Job ends on May 15.

• $1.8 million to reconstruct Russell Street in Lewiston. Work ends June 18.

• $879,747 for a mile of paving on Turner Street northward from Center Street in Auburn. Work ends June 12.

• $644,572 to replace the Durgin Bridge over Sabattus Stream in Lisbon. Work ends May 15.

• $636,930 to improve Route 136 in Auburn. Work ends July 16.

• $252,703 to replace the Runaround Pond bridge in Durham. Work ends Sept. 4.

Another project still undergoing cost development is to replace 1.7 miles of Route 219 in Turner from the intersection of Route 117 to Twin Bridges with recycled asphalt and a skinny overlay, Hume said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

Work to replace Route 2’s Dixfield-Mexico bridge over Webb River, which these drivers are about to cross on Thursday afternoon, could start this fall. The Maine Department of Transportation will put the $2.3 million project out to bid in October, MDOT Region 3 engineer Mark Hume said Thursday in Dixfield. The project also involves reconstructing and paving a quarter mile of the Mexico side of Route 2 from the bridge and toward Rumford, at an estimated cost of $1 million, Hume said.

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