VERONA (AP) – Truckers wasted little time in using the Waldo-Hancock Bridge now that it has reopened to heavy trucks.

More than 100 trucks that had been banned drove across the bridge the day after the Maine Department of Transportration increased its posted weight limit from 12 tons to 40 tons last Thursday.

The numbers dropped over the weekend to less than half those trucks, but rose again to similar levels on Monday.

The U.S. 1 bridge across the Penobscot River serves as an important lifeline for Down East Maine. With the weight limit reduced, heavy trucks and buses had been forced to make a 40-mile detour to Bangor.

“This is going to save a lot of time, and it’s certainly going to help lower costs,” said Dale Hanington, president of the Maine Motor Transport Association.

The impact was immediate for trucker Alan Smiths of Bangor, a driver for Vaughn Thibodeau & Sons.

Smiths is now able to make five to six trips a day hauling asphalt from the company’s plant in Prospect to Blue Hill. Without the bridge, he would have been limited to two or three trips a day.

The DOT closed the bridge to heavy trucks and buses weighing more than 24,000 pounds after discovering extensive deterioration to its two main cables in July. The bridge was dedicated in 1932.

The decision to reopen the suspension bridge was made after the installation of 16 new supporting cables and an independent evaluation.

The new cables were designed to bring the bridge back to an 80,000-pound limit.

Hanington noted that the new limit is lower than the original 100,000-pound limit, so some of the heaviest trucks are still banned.

“There’s still a significant part of the industry that’s excluded from using the bridge,” Hanington said. “We understand it’s for safety reasons, and we’re not complaining.”

AP-ES-11-05-03 0216EST