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| Photo courtesy of Shawn Cote Motorists will be impressed with the bridges carrying the Route 161/Route 1 connector highway over Routes 1 and 89 as engineers incorporated special concrete forms to suggest stonework construction. The new road that has been in the works since late 2010 is ahead of schedule and likely to open next month. |
By Shawn Cote
Special to the Aroostook Republican
CARIBOU — After two years, construction of the new bypass highway between Routes 161 and 1 in Caribou is entering the home stretch. According to Maine Department of Transportation officials and the independent contractor responsible for the Contract 2 segment of the highway project, work on the 4.3-mile-long Caribou Connector could wrap up as early as the middle of August, weather permitting.
“It’s going to be open and the only thing you might see on the side of the road [is that] they’ll still be putting [up] fence at the right-of-way,” said Martine Burnham, senior technician with the Bureau of Project Development Highway Program, Region 5. “Everything else will be done.”
Preliminary construction of the first 1-mile segment of the connector began in November of 2010. The design-bid stage, referred to as Contract 1, was completed by Soderberg Construction of Caribou last fall. Since last summer, Sargent Corporation, an independent contractor based out of Stillwater, has been working on Contract 2, the 2.8-mile design-build segment. Lane Construction won the low bid for a third phase, which involves surface paving, guardrail installation, fencing and landscaping, and should be completed at the same time that Contract 2 work wraps up.
The new highway was designed to separate local city traffic from through-traffic, with the overall goal of enhancing mobility, reducing travel time, and allowing the city of Caribou to develop its downtown area as trucks are moved out of town and onto the bypass. The finished project will encompass two 12-foot travel lanes with 8-foot shoulders. There will be five bridges on the connector, including the so-called Bridge in a Backpack over the Interconnected Trail System for snowmobiles. This bridge was built using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) tubes filled with concrete, creating a lightweight formwork. Another bridge will carry traffic over Route 1.
“The bridge builders put a lining in their forms on Route 1 (Van Buren) and Route 89, to look like rocks,” Burnham said. “So it’s a nice face, when you look at it.”
An additional structure has been put in place to allow snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles to travel under the Connector Road.
According to information obtained from the MaineDOT Caribou Connector Project website at http://www.maine.gov/mdot/ccdb/index.htm, other features of the new highway system include a flyover at Route 89; a diamond interchange at the Route 1 intersection; drainage; and pertinent roadside safety features.
Burnham explained that as part of an agreement with the city, MaineDOT had to provide a land exchange and replacement facilities for the Otter Street Park and Ride and city snow dump, which were displaced during construction of the connector. This past winter, the city used land off the Powers Road owned by Soderberg Construction for its snow dump.
Work on the southern impetus of the connector will continue into the week of July 16-21, as surface paving gets under way.
Scott Blanchard, superintendent with Sargent Corporation, said he anticipates very little impact on traffic during the paving process. “We’re going to do split traffic and put two-way traffic on [the southbound travel lane] side of the road, and then do the right side,“ Blanchard said. “So, for that part of the day, we’re not going to have any traffic impacts. Towards the end of the day, it may be one-way traffic. So that’s where it might get a little more inconvenient to people. [Traffic] will be stopped, alternating northbound and southbound. We can’t direct [motorists] to go somewhere else, but if they can avoid the area, it would be much appreciated. It’d be less frustrating for the traveling public.”
Burnham suggested commuters might want to take Limestone Street before hitting the southern terminus. “And the farmers know [about the construction],” she added. “We haven’t seen any equipment coming up.”
“We’re going to be doing [surface paving] towards the end of the week, just to keep on schedule, and it’s only going to be one or two days,” said Blanchard. “I think [it will only be] one day, but I can’t say which day right now because it’s weather-dependent. We can’t surface pave in the rain.”
