The first year of work is wrapping up on the first section of Presque Isle’s Route 1 Bypass, and State Street is now re-opened after being closed for six months.
Madawaska-based contractor Ed Pelletier & Sons has made good progress on the first 1.5 mile section of a planned 7.5 mile bypass around downtown Presque Isle, said Beecher Whitcomb, project manager with the Maine Department of Transportation.
“It was a struggle, but we hit our six month deadline right to the day,” Whitcomb said of the reopening of State Street, which had been closed since May to allow for the construction of a bridge over the bypass.
Work continues on the rest of that first section of the bypass, which has a budget of $14 million and runs roughly north-to-south between Route 167 and Conant Road. The goal of the bypass is to reduce industrial traffic through downtown and residential Presque Isle with a corridor for heavy trucks, especially those heading to and from the Huber Engineered Woods and McCain Foods factories in Easton.
So far, the project’s “schedule and budget are on track,” said Whitcomb. The crews worked almost all through last winter clearing and excavating the route, but the contractor is planning to pause work around Christmas for about two months, Whitcomb said.
If all goes well with paving in the spring and summer, the bypass could be open for traffic this time next year, Whitcomb said.
“They have until November of next year, but could be done in October.”
But it is not clear when work on the second, southern and larger phase of the bypass may commence. MDOT had planned to solicit bids for that 5 mile section in 2018 and begin work right after the first section finished, but now it may not start until 2021, Whitcomb said.
That decision has not been finalized and rests in the higher levels of the department, but that possible delay could be “because of budgeting or right of way issues,” Whitcomb said.
“There’s a lot of land they have to purchase still.”
This section of the bypass is expected to cost about four times the amount of the first section, or more than $50 million. While the route has not been finalized, its general path would start off of Route 1 north of the Westfield town line, veering northeast and connecting with Route 10 in Easton.
That path would travel through properties that includes parcels of active farmland and could also involve multiple bridges, Whitcomb said.
A bypass around downtown Presque Isle and the city’s residential core has been discussed for more than a decade with mixed reception in the Star City.
Previous proposals included a third, northern section of the bypass crossing the Aroostook River from Route 167 and connecting with Route 1. But that idea, which drew opposition from locals in that area, was effectively dropped from the plan, as the federal government approved funding only for the two sections.
