Essex Street bridge replacement included in MaineDOT 3-year work plan

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

One of Dover-Foxcroft’s two major bridges is slated for replacement as part of the Maine Department of Transportation’s recently released three-year work plan.

The 90-year-old Dover Bridge, which crosses the Piscataquis River on Essex Street, is scheduled to be replaced at a cost of $8.8 million, according to the plan.

“Regarding the bridge project, we expect we will be getting into full preliminary engineering work in the next few months,” Paul Merrill, MaineDOT public information officer, said. “The project has now been funded for construction, and we expect we will be putting it out to bid in 2023.”

The Dover Bridge replacement is one of 166 bridge projects statewide in the three-year plan at a total cost of $504 million, and one of 2,180 overall projects slated for 2021, 2022 and 2023 with a total value of $2.71 billion.

“I know the MaineDOT has looked at [the bridge] a few other times over the years, probably over the last eight to 10 years, and I’m glad they’ve raised it to the priority level to fully address it,” Dover-Foxcroft town manager Jack Clukey said. “It’s an old bridge, it’s a very busy bridge, and by today’s standards it’s narrow with the size of vehicles that’s crossing over it every day.”

Minor repairs have been made to the aging bridge in recent years, including work on its sidewalks.

“I knew they were formulating a plan to address the bridge,” Clukey said. “They were up here a lot last summer basically surveying and inspecting, and we knew that it was a priority to address.

“It will be a major upgrade, for sure, a major improvement.”

The current Dover Bridge, also known over the years as the Lower Bridge and the Essex Street Bridge, was opened to traffic in November 1930 after being constructed by Green and Wilson of Waterville at a cost of $40,687. That was the winner among eight bids for the project, according to Piscataquis Observer news clips maintained by the Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society.

Before that span was built, river crossings at that location came via a 280-foot-long covered bridge that was completed in October 1857 at a cost “between 5 and 6 thousand dollars,” the Observer reported at the time.

The bridge replacement is among eight projects slated for Dover-Foxcroft in the new MaineDOT three-year work plan.

Another provides $605,000 in funding for safety improvements at the intersection of Routes 7 and 15.

That intersection has been a troublesome downtown traffic area for decades, particularly due to the high volume of tractor-trailer trucks and the tightness of the lanes due to buildings crowding the area.

The town tore down the former Dead River Co. building at the intersection earlier this winter, creating space for eventual lane widening to accommodate the traffic.

That was the latest step in a process being done in conjunction with MaineDOT that already had  included the completion of a traffic study and the development of two construction options.

According to the MaineDOT work plan, that project is expected to be completed in 2022 or 2023.

Another Dover-Foxcroft project slated for completion in 2022 or 2023 is the mill and fill of Route 6 beginning at Lincoln Street and extending northeast for 0.96 mile. Cost of that project is $608,000.

Projects in the three-year plan scheduled to be completed in 2021 are light capital paving of the 6.56 miles of the Douty Hill Road from Route 23 in Sangerville to Route 7 in Dover-Foxcroft, $263,000; surface treatment of Cass Notch Crossing bridge on Pine Street near the Sangerville town line, $28,000; light capital paving of Route 153 from Route 16 north for 4.62 miles, $185,000; light capital paving of 0.96 mile of State Park Road from Shore Road North to Route 153, $38,000; and a large culvert replacement on Route 15 0.48 mile north of the Norton Hill Road, $552,000.