Building’s demolition clears space for future D-F intersection work

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

The first tangible sign of an eventual widening project at one of the region’s more troublesome traffic intersections came into view this week with the demolition of the former Dead River Co. office building in downtown Dover-Foxcroft.

Employees of the town’s public works department tore the building down Monday and continued  removing its debris Tuesday as part of an effort to create additional space at the intersection of East Main and South streets — also known as the Dexter Road and state Route 7 — to better accommodate tractor-trailer truck traffic.

This was the latest step in a process being done in conjunction with the Maine Department of Transportation that already has included the completion of a traffic study and the development of two construction options.

MaineDOT purchased the empty building and late last year prepared it for the town to demolish it. The state’s role in the demolition included the removal of any hazardous materials from the building.

“Our goal was to get it down during cold weather time and to try to do it between snow events,” Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey said. “This was a good opportunity to get started this week, and we’ll try to finish up as soon as we can.”

Clukey said once the debris is removed, the building’s foundation will be backfilled and the area will be sloped to a safe grade.

“We’ll dress it up some more in the spring, get some grass growing and make it look as nice as we can until the state comes through and does the capital improvement project at the intersection,” he said.

State transportation officials have said the three-way intersection has been a traffic trouble spot for decades due to buildings crowding both sides of the roads involved and the resulting tight turns.

That has left insufficient space for lanes wide enough to accommodate the steady stream of tractor-trailer trucks that pass through the intersection as well as other traffic — some of which is not accustomed to the unique location of painted stop bars meant to keep those vehicles far enough back from the street lights to allow the big rigs to turn.

At least one crosswalk post at the intersection has been knocked down so often by turning trucks that the signal button pedestrians push to cross the street was attached to a building instead of a nearby post.

Of the two plans developed for the intersection, the town prefers plan 3B, which provides  additional space to widen the current lanes for the benefit of both truck and pedestrian traffic.

A second option — 3A — would create a slip lane for vehicles to make a direct right turn onto South Street headed toward Dexter, as well as a pedestrian crossing island within the intersection.

Further design engineering is anticipated to complete the plan.

MaineDOT works on a three-year project cycle, meaning it will be 2023 at the earliest before construction would be funded. 

“We’re just trying to stay on schedule on our end so hopefully they’ll stay on schedule on theirs,” Clukey said.