GARDINER — For about a month next summer, nearly 20,000 drivers a day will have to make alternate plans for crossing the Kennebec River in southern Kennebec County.

The Maine Department of Transportation is planning to resurface the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, which connects Gardiner and Randolph and a portion of Midcoast Maine with Interstates 95 and 295. The last time the bridge was resurfaced was in 2008.

Leading the options that transportation officials are considering is a proposal to limit construction to about a month, but detour some traffic to cross the river either in Augusta or in Richmond. Other options would extend construction time and still affect traffic patterns around the bridge, especially on the Randolph side where any changes to traffic flow threaten to clog up roads and intersections. Extending the construction timeframe could also affect school bus routes that cross the Kennebec.

In evaluating the options, research and analysis for the multi-million dollar project, transportation officials favor the option that takes the least amount of time and would reinforce that in the contract that provides incentives for speedy completion and builds in penalties for delays.

Devan Eaton, a project manager with the Maine Department of Transportation, has been meeting with officials and business owners in Gardiner and Randolph and gave a presentation outlining all the project options to the Gardiner City Council earlier this month.

The favored option would preserve westbound traffic over the bridge, and eastbound traffic would be diverted and detoured to cross the river in either Augusta or Richmond. The project would require plentiful signage and notice that all businesses on either side of the river remain open for business.

“A lot of it is commuter traffic in the morning, but we understand that there is a lot of local traffic that uses (the bridge) throughout the day,” Eaton said at the council meeting. “It’s the convenience factor. What’s worse — something that takes a year or something that takes 30 days?”

Traffic counts on the bridge show the annual average daily traffic is 18,133 vehicles.

The project would start after the Fourth of July holiday in 2024 and wrap up by the third week in August, before the school year is scheduled to start.

Restricting traffic over the bridge raised concerns with Gardiner officials. At Large City Councilor Tim Cusick said a detour of up to 30 minutes for ambulances and fire trucks would put lives and property at risk.

The Gardiner Ambulance Service provides service to Pittston, Randolph and half of Chelsea on the east side of the Kennebec River, and the Gardiner Fire Department provides mutual aid response to those towns and relies on them for mutual aid on Gardiner’s side of the river.

Rick Sieberg, Gardiner’s fire chief and head of the Gardiner Ambulance Service, agreed.

“I was told we’d still be able to drive across the surface of the bridge while they’re working on it if we had to, but my thought was if they are willing to pay for the overtime to staff a truck over there,” Sieberg said. “I wouldn’t want to take away from our on-duty shift. We’d have to add to it. It’s a big concern for me.”

Eaton said the state may be able to provide help in the form of coordinating with an additional ambulance service or stationing a fire truck on the east side of the river.

In an emergency, trucks could drive across the river, Eaton said, noting that the transportation department coordinated with Falmouth public safety officials about overtime and extra staff during a large project that shut down Interstate 295 in Portland.

“We have a year from when we would advertise the project and make folks aware of that,” he said.

Gardiner Mayor Patricia Hart said the construction under the preferred option comes at a time when the Ironman 70.3’s cycling leg is scheduled to cross the bridge.

Eaton said the sidewalk would be open at all times, and if the roadway is used, that would require some coordination and writing that into the contract.

The next step in the process is a planned virtual on-demand public meeting on the project that starts on June 1. The public is invited to comment and submit questions about the project that will be answered by department staff at the meeting. 

The project is expected to go out for bid this summer, and the final cost will be determined by the results of the bidding.

When the work gets underway, the project calls for removing the existing surface, patching the concrete bridge deck where needed, installing a waterproof membrane to protect the bridge structure from salt damage, and paving the roadway.

Eaton said if it’s needed, the sidewalk on the bridge will be patched and they will rehabilitate the bridge’s expansion joints.

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