By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) has
issued another timeline for the construction of a new Interstate-295N
on-ramp at Exit 3 and construction is expected to begin this fall.

    The project, one of six included in the MDOT’s Maine
Mall Area Road Work plan, will widen Broadway and Westbrook Street and
create an east bound lane on Westbrook that will allow motorists
right-and turn access to a new Interstate-295 on ramp.

    Last Friday, MDOT Project Manager Shawn Smith said
the $5.2 million project is fully funded under the previous biannual
funding through a combination of federal, state, local and developer
money from the construction of the U.S. Post Office Distribution Center
in Scarborough.    

    Smith said the advertisements for requests for bids
are expected to go out in either late July or early August and if all
goes well construction would begin the second week of Sept.

    He said the projected completion date for the entire
project is early summer 2009. The bulk of the construction will take
place during the 2008 construction season with final touches including
loam, seeding and a final surface layer of paving scheduled for spring
2009.

    The first phase of the project, consolidating the
clay, was started two years ago. Smith said “the huge piles of dirt out
there” are helping to remove the water from the clay, which prevents
later settlement.

    Once construction begins, Smith said there would be
some night work while crews set the steel and work on the bridge that
will span Westbrook Street.

    “We don’t want to have anybody working over live
traffic,” he said. He said there would also be periodic night work when
crews move on to the intersection of Westbrook and Broadway.

    With the recent approval of the $112 million
transportation bond from Tuesday’s referendum, MDOT Project Manager
Ernie Martin said there is a potential for as many as four to six
projects-previously postponed due to lack of funding-to be advertised
per week.

    Included in MDOT’s 2008-2009 Work Plan are two highway-widening projects between Exit 3 and Exit 4.

    In preliminary planning numbers, Martin said the
cost to create an auxiliary northbound lane is roughly $3 million and
construction of a southbound auxiliary lane would be roughly $1.7
million.

    “In the upcoming months as we proceed with
preliminary designs, we will have meetings with all of the parties
involved,” Martin said. Construction would likely start in 2009, but in
the coming months he said MDOT and stakeholders will look at whether
putting both projects out at the same time has merit.

    If the projects are bid out separately, he said the
widening of the southbound lane would likely go out first. 

    Martin said the I-295 corridor project is a “federal
earmarked project,” but included in the funding is a 20 percent state
match, which he said is typical of most projects.

    Smith asks all motorists to be aware of changing traffic patterns once construction gets underway

    “We want to let everybody know, once we do start
construction, be aware of daily traffic control changes,” he said.

    Each day may be slightly different and he encouraged
people to visit MDOT’s Web site, which provides information about the
latest project schedules.