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Staff photo/Kevin Sjoberg Eleven-year-old Austin LaPlante of Caribou gives his younger brother Trevor, 2, a ride on the new Caribou Connector Friday. The road was open to pedestrians, bicyclists, roller-skiers and skateboarders for an hour during a grand opening celebration. Please see next week’s issue for additional photos from the CaribouConnector festivities. |
By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — The brand new Caribou Connector has seen more and more traffic every day, but the new roadway’s foot traffic will probably never exceed the approximately 200 individuals who took the opportunity to walk, bike and roll their way across the freshly paved 3.8 miles of progress.
Construction began on the $20 million highway in 2010 and was officially opened on Aug. 17.
Tours of the Caribou Connector were provided by officials with the Caribou Recreation Department, including Superintendent of the Caribou Parks and Recreation Department Kathy Mazzuchelli; the Mayor of Caribou Ken Murchison was one of approximately 80 who took the tour van tours over and around the new stretch of highway.
Murchison’s been following the project closely for over 20 years, but said that “the best explanation I ever received came from [Mazzuchelli].”
Mazzuchelli said that officials spent a lot of time highlighting everything that went into the massive project.
“This was one of those projects that had supporters and then maybe some vocal critics, so we thought that we’d offer some education for folks to understand the in’s and out’s of the project,” she explained. “Construction in this day and age takes so long, and the reason we gave tours was to apprise people as to the scope of work that’s required to build 3.8 miles of roadway.”
The best part of the project, in Mazzuchelli’s opinion, was that there was a huge amount of open communication between the Maine Department of Transportation and community residents from the start.
Murchison added another positive offered by the connector project; aside from local deliveries, large tractor trailer trucks hauling cargo like petroleum products, caustic chemicals and fertilizers now have a way to transport their goods while staying of Caribou’s small streets.
“Our small city streets were never made for 50-foot tractor trailer trucks,” Murchison said, adding that removing the heavy equipment from the small streets will reduce wear and tear on the roads.
Mazzuchelli added that for 30 years, Caribou has had an alternative truck route around the city in their comprehensive plan.
“People have joked that this was a road to nowhere; my comment now is that this is a road to everywhere,” Murchison said, adding that the new highway has been a point of interest in town with people watching for when it was going to be open.
The first non-work related vehicles to grace the Caribou Connector were a small fleet of approximately 30 antique cars taking a historic 3.8 mile drive.
“Even [Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt] took a tour in a Mustang,” Mazzuchelli said.