LEWISTON — Repaving 6.3 miles of Route 196 in Lewiston and Lisbon should begin in earnest this weekend.

Crews from Pike Industries are scheduled to begin site preparations this week, with trucks milling and removing the old pavement beginning Sunday night.

“We will actually have two trucks working on the milling,” Ryan Barnes, project engineer for the city of Lewiston, said. “One will be working in Lewiston and the other in Lisbon, so there will be two lane closures. We just really wanted to get a jump on the milling.”

The project starts at Westminster Street in Lewiston and continues east to North River Road in Lisbon.

Work is scheduled overnight, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and will cause traffic delays as contractors close portions of the road. Crews will keep at least one travel lane open in both directions while the work continues.

The milling work is scheduled to continue for two weeks, with paving beginning July 16.

Barnes said contractors are watching forecasts for those late-July weeks.

“The milling work, that can continue in the rain — unless it’s a downpour,” he said. “But we need to have good weather for the paving. That can’t be done in the rain. So, weather like we’ve had this week could delay us.”

Most of the paving is scheduled to be complete by July 23, with crews painting new stripes on the road and matching driveways and gutters finished by July 30.

staylor@sunjournal.com

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