AUBURN— Crews rolled back the signs blocking Route 136 between Durham and Auburn about 9:30 a.m. Monday, letting the first cars drive on the stretch of road since September.
“We didn’t have any balloons or flags or firetrucks,” Ken Silver, resident engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation, said. “We just got it to the point that it was ready. We had the paving down, the road painted and the guardrails installed. We were just ready.”
The new road veers sharply west, detouring around an area that collapsed into the Androscoggin River on Sept. 2 — taking a crane, tons of asphalt and rock and power lines with it.
The state also had to move the house belonging to George and Ruth Benjamin to make room for the road. Their home was right in the middle of where the new road was planned. The state paid to move the house about 100 feet southwest.
That work was finished last week, and workers are still settling the house into its new foundation and attaching it to utilities. The Benjamins have been out-of-town during the project, Silver said.
The road may be open, but the work isn’t finished yet. Crews are still working to stabilize the riverside slope, securing it with heavy chunks of rock. Silver estimated crews would be finished stabilizing the river bank in three weeks.
They also need to bring in a crane to remove metal stabilizers, asphalt and gravel from the river. That should be finished in three weeks, as well.
Crews will be back in the spring to put down a final coat of asphalt.
“It’s been a long slow process, but we got it done,” he said.
The opening didn’t come a moment too soon for Donna Church, owner of the Durham Get & Go.
“They said it was going to take a year back when this started, then it was a few months,” Church said. She’s been visiting the worksite every other day for the past few months to monitor road’s progress.
“It was always another two weeks,” she said. “Then, on Sunday, they said it was going to open on Monday.”
Church’s store depends on commuters for most of its business, and it’s been tough for the past two months.
“But the people in town really stepped up,”she said. “They ordered a lot of food and kept us in business.”
But she’s eager for things to get back to normal.
“We, we just need to let people know the road is back open,” she said.
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- State crews reopened Route 136 between Auburn and Durham just after 9 a.m. Monday morning. The road had been closed since September after a portion collapsed into the Androscoggin River. The newly rebuilt road curves sharply to the southwest and crosses where a home used to be. The home was moved about 100 feet west to make room for the road.
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- Andrew Darling of Lewiston lets traffic go Monday on the newly reopened Route 136 between Auburn and Durham. A portion of the road collapsed in September, but state crews were able to reopen the road a month early.
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- Andrew Darling of Lewiston lets traffic go Monday on the newly reopened Route 136 between Auburn and Durham. A portion of the road collapsed in September, but state crews were able to reopen the road a month early.
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