JAY — Improvements to the intersection at Hyde Road and Route 133 will begin Friday.

Nelson Communications Services Inc. of New Hampshire was the lowest bidder of six on the Maine Department of Transportation project.

The company anticipates a two-week time frame to improve line-of-sight for traffic entering Route 133.

The company will begin road improvements in the spring of 2014. The project is projected to be completed by late June 2014.

The state and town partnered on the project.

In May, the town tore down a vacant home it bought at auction for $36,970. The property includes a large barn and 3 or 4 acres. The money came from the $200,000 voters raised in the 2012-13 budget to help make the intersection safer.

There have been 14 accidents over the past five years at the intersection, Town Manager Ruth Cushman previously said.

The project entails cutting back the slope on the northwest corner of the property the town purchased to increase sight distance looking left, or north, as one pulls out of Hyde Road, according to Brian Keezer, a DOT traffic project manager, .

It also calls for cutting the grade on Route 133 to the north of the intersection to also improve sight distance, he said earlier this year. The corner radius will be widened at Hyde Road so trucks turning right onto Route 133 will no longer have to cross into the northbound lane of Route 133.

Drainage will also be improved by installing new riprapped ditches and replacing a couple existing culverts.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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