WATERVILLE — Major work happening now on the downtown intersection of Main, Water, Spring and Front streets is expected to be completed at the end of this month, officials said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, final paving and traffic light installation is expected to be done there in the fall of next year, when Main and Front streets will go from one-way to two-way traffic.
When the intersection is finally completed around October 2022, motorists approaching it will still be able turn in all the directions as they do now. The only major difference is that the curved slip lane motorists typically used to go from Main to Front Street, by the new Lockwood Hotel, has been removed and will not be replaced.
Crooker Construction Inc. of Topsham started working on the intersection March 21 as part of an $11.2 million project to transform Main and Front streets downtown to two-way traffic flow, improve intersections and sidewalks, and beautify the area with landscaping.
“They removed all of the traffic islands in the existing intersections,” City Engineer Andy McPherson said Wednesday. “They are constructing half of the Front Street part of the intersection and that will be paved to allow traffic to travel on that so they can do the other part.”
The “other part” is the lane coming from the Ticonic Bridge to Front Street on the Kennebec River side of the intersection. Sidewalks will be removed and the lane reconstructed.
As part of the intersection work, traffic light foundations also were installed.
Water and Main streets from the intersection to Temple Street will be rebuilt and get base pavement this year, according to McPherson. Most of Front Street will be rebuilt this year, new sidewalks installed and base pavement laid on that street as well, he said.
Next year, Main Street — from Temple Street to the intersection of College Avenue — will be rebuilt and final paving will be placed on Front and Main and new striping painted to designate two-way traffic on both.
While Main Street now also is considered U.S. Route 201, Front Street will become the new 201, according to McPherson. He said it is hoped Front Street will be used for thru-traffic.
A new intersection in the area of Burger King will be built next year as well, he said.
Former City Manager Michael Roy, now the temporary assistant city manager, said Wednesday that work on the intersection of Main, Spring, Front and Water streets is going as planned.
“The contractor may be a little bit behind schedule, but that’s not any cause for concern at this point,” he said.
Roy, who is working on the revitalization project, said any issues the city has had have been well handled by Crooker and the Maine Department of Transportation.
“From my point of view, being the city’s main liaison for the project, things have been going really quite well,” he said.
As part of the $11.2 million project, roads will be reconstructed, intersections realigned, and existing roadway drainage improved. Main Street will be landscaped with new granite curbs, lights, concrete and brick sidewalks and crosswalks, and trees.
In March, Crooker removed trees at the intersection of Front, Main, Spring and Water streets and removed islands to allow traffic to maneuver through streets as the approaches to the intersections are reconfigured, according to transportation department, which is partnering with the city, Colby College, and downtown businesses and building owners on the project.
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