Fort Kent’s public works department is involved in paving projects spanning 20 roads throughout the northern Maine town.
As of Monday morning, crews have finished work on Violette Settlement Road and planned to have Village Road finished in the afternoon. Crews will then start working on Pine, Birch and Desjardins streets on Tuesday.
Summers are short in northern Maine, so crews typically cram dozens of projects into the warmer months. The work in Fort Kent will result in some road closures, Public Works Director Chad Pelletier said.
“It’s in the town’s best interest to maintain a roughly 10-year paving cycle whenever possible,” Pelletier said. “Once roads are allowed to deteriorate beyond that point, they typically require much more extensive, and significantly more expensive repairs to restore them to good condition.”
On Wednesday morning railroad workers will work on the crossing at the bottom of Charette Hill Road. As a result, the Charette Hill road will be closed between the Market Street and Highland Avenue and Brookside Drive intersections.
This will last from 5 a.m. until about noon on Wednesday, and paving will begin immediately afterward. Anyone trying to get to a location in the closed portion will need to access it through Highland Avenue from Station Hill on East Main Street, Pelletier said.
Altogether, the work includes 23 miles of roadway. The town expects to be finished by early September, weather permitting.
The paving project has a $1.9 million budget, funded through a 10-year bond that the town approved at a public hearing in the spring.
The town awarded the paving contract to Soderberg Construction of Caribou. The town usually has one public works employee on site to oversee operations.
Many of the included roads were also in the town’s 2016 paving bond.
