RUMFORD — Construction begins Monday, Jan. 9, to replace a temporary logging bridge over Bean Brook on Swain Road with a twin box culvert.

The work by CPM Constructors of Freeport is estimated to take 2 ½ weeks, provided there are no unforeseen weather problems, Town Manager Carlo Puiia said early Friday afternoon.

“The town anticipates a maximum of four weeks to complete installation of the twin box culverts,” Puiia said in a Dec. 22 letter to residents of Swain, Glover, Isthmus, Beliveau and Eaton Hill roads, and Alexander Avenue.

“Of course, that means Swain Road will be shut down, so from 327 Swain Road on will be inaccessible,” he said Friday. “They’ll have to use Isthmus Road to access anything.”

That means a 6-mile one-way trip from the upper Swain Road side of Bean Brook just to the intersection of Routes 2 and Hancock Street (Route 120) instead of less than a mile into the downtown area.

“Basically, the people that live on Isthmus Road are going to be affected by the increased traffic as well,” Puiia said.

Town officials view the construction and addition of twin box culverts as a long-term fix to a perennial problem of higher flows that turn Bean Brook into a raging river.

The last straw came in late August when Tropical Storm Irene nailed Rumford with 6.25 inches of rain in a few hours. Woody debris washing down the brook jammed against newly installed culverts until the water force blew them and the road out.

Rumford logger Jim Nicols donated use of his 46-foot-long logging bridge and his crew and a Public Works crew installed it as a temporary solution.

That bridge is expected to be taken out Monday.

Local oil delivery companies, all emergency responders, the Postal Service and RSU 10 were also notified of the coming road closure.

“We have discussed with the contractor the possibility of establishing a single lane during the process, so there may be times when the crew isn’t working that we may provide a single lane,” Puiia said.

“But during working hours, they will have to be in the road and it wouldn’t be an efficient operation flagging and allowing traffic through.”

He apologized for the delay and coming inconvenience.

“We were concerned about having it engineered to handle the type of water flow that goes through there when you have an extreme storm system such as we experienced,” Puiia said. “Of course we hate to inconvenience the residents and we’re concerned about public safety, that’s why we’re trying to hold (CPM) to as strict a schedule as we can.”

He said the town did the right thing when it appropriated money to pay for installation of box culverts rather than replace the smaller culverts with similar culverts and risk high flows taking them out again.

“We want to make sure that the installation goes well and is done correctly, of course, and hope that people understand it’s just temporary,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that it just happens to be when gas prices go up again.”

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