FRENCHVILLE, Maine – The U.S. Department of Transportation is investing $27.68 million in a project to improve Route 1 in Frenchville.
The investment is being made via the USDOT Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program. With this funding, MaineDOT will be able to repair two sections of Route 1 that go through Frenchville. This section of the road connects Madawaska and Fort Kent — two of the region’s major communities.
“It should be welcome news to everybody that these projects are finally coming to fruition,” Frenchville Town Manager David Cyr said on Friday. “They’ve been on the books for a couple of years now, but the funding was not there.”
Cyr said the work will economically benefit the region, and that there are farmers in town who travel to and from Fort Kent and Madawaska on a regular basis.
“Any improvements to our road infrastructure has benefits, both direct and indirect,” Cyr said.
MaineDOT plans to complete the project by November 2028.
The funding was made possible via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was negotiated in part by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins. Altogether, the infrastructure act will bring about $2.5 billion to the state for broadband, transportation, energy, and environmental projects.
Collins, in a Friday press release, said Route 1 plays a critical role in northern Maine by connecting communities near the border to their families, jobs, health care, and essential goods.
The project will accomplish multiple goals, according to the MaineDOT project summary, available in full on the state website. In addition to improving the road surface and subsurface, the work will also improve the drainage, retaining walls, and guardrails along two sections of road that are roughly 10.4 miles long. The project also involves upgrading roadway shoulders to help bicyclists travel safely.
The project will strengthen the region’s only east-west thoroughfare, which the summary states sees 90 inches or more of average annual snowfall. The work will repair aspects of the road that take a heavy toll from snow plowing and road salt.
Officials hope the work will also improve job growth in the region.
“An improved road sustains farming jobs in a state that has struggled with shifting employment over the past several decades,” the MaineDOT project summary reads. “Lumber and paper mills have dwindled from more than a dozen to just a few, and the result has been job losses. Farming and tourism, which both heavily rely on good roads, have helped replace lost jobs.”
