AUBURN — A newly repaved Jordan School Road should reopen this week, thanks to work by state road crews.
Repairs were part of the emergency work the state Department of Transportation approved after a portion of Route 136 collapsed last month, sending traffic along the rural Auburn road.
Officials from the MDOT briefed councilors on the Sept. 2 collapse and their response since then. Engineer Joyce Taylor said the state would try to get some version of Route 136 reopened by the end of year.
“Keep in mind, this is Maine and gravel can freeze,” she said. The state has approved a shortened bid process to select contractors to replace the section of the road that fell into the Androscoggin River.
Taylor said the state expects the winning contractor to work nonstop on the road until it reopens.
“The only day off they’d have would be Thanksgiving,” she said.
Taylor said the MDOT has two working designs for the road. The first puts the new road about 200 feet west of the collapsed road and through the middle of a nearby house.
The second plan puts the road another 400 feet west. Taylor said engineers prefer the first plan but need to get the homeowners to agree. If they do, the state could pay to move the house farther to the west before beginning work on the road repairs.
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