Culvert project causing major road closure pushed to April

Winning bid, emergency services plan and school bus schedules announced for project that will divide Penobscot for up to a month

A truck passes over the culvert on Bayview Road that will be replaced this spring. File photo.

PENOBSCOT—Penobscot officials say the culvert project that will shut down a vital road is likely to be pushed back about a month to take advantage of school vacation week.

The project is now expected to start in April, not March as earlier planned, according to Penobscot select board chair Harold Hatch.

That comes after the town received permission from the state’s Department of Marine Resources to push the end date of the project back to May 15, instead of April 15. The new construction window allows the town to conduct work during school vacation week in April, easing travel pressures on students and parents.

Engineers and officials had earlier wanted to complete the project in March, prior to the annual smelt run. The small fish makes its way from the Bagaduce River up Mill Creek and into Pierce’s Pond to spawn in April. Their migration is followed in May by the annual alewife run.

Hatch said the construction should not impact the smelt run, since the creek will only be disturbed for a short time while construction crews dig out the old culvert and lay in a foundation for a new one. Then, once a new box culvert is set in place, the fish will be able to pass upstream while work continues.

The fish’s nocturnal habits also work well with the construction schedule, Hatch said.

“Smelts normally run during high tide at night, not during the day, so nobody seems to think it’s an issue,” Hatch said of the migration.

The town will place signs at all roads coming into Penobscot in the weeks ahead to alert people to the impending closure. Hatch said residents should keep an eye on the town’s website and Facebook page for updates. He said he expects to know the exact start date soon from the construction company that won the bid.

“When we get a start date we’ll start putting stuff out to the public, putting up signage, so everyone knows there’s a major detour,” Hatch said.

Winning bid

Hatch said Orono-based Sargent Construction was the winning bid on the project, with a price of $996,905. Two other companies also bid on the project: T Buck Construction based in Turner submitted a bid of $1,581,212, while R.F. Jordan and Sons Construction of Ellsworth offered a bid of $1,322,857.

Engineers had estimated the cost of the culvert replacement and associated roadwork to be around $1.3 million. Any cost savings will not be kept by the town, however. Up to 60 percent of the cost of the project will be paid for by the Maine Department of Transportation, and the remaining 40 percent by grant funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Hatch said.

“We should get out of this without spending any local taxpayer funds,” Hatch predicted in a Jan. 25 interview with The Rising Tide. 

Emergency services

Local fire chiefs have been communicating about how to prepare for calls that effectively cut off one side of Penobscot from the other during construction.

Blue Hill, Castine and Orland fire departments will be on automatic standby at their stations for any reported fires in Penobscot during construction, according to Penobscot fire chief James Clarke.

At the same time, Penobscot’s department will stage one of its tanker trucks on the Castine side of closure, equipped with an extra set of the “jaws of life,” a powerful hydraulic tool often used to free accident victims from vehicles. There are three possible locations currently under discussion for where the tanker will be staged, Clarke said.

With any medical calls or serious car accidents on the western side of Penobscot’s Mill Creek during construction, Castine’s fire department will also respond with its “Rescue” truck, which carries an assortment of tools and equipment.

Bus services

As for the school busing plan, the town had originally floated an idea to have children walk across a footbridge about 300 feet upstream of the culvert project to meet waiting buses. That plan has now been scrapped.

The new plan entails starting bus routes earlier in West Penobscot and to transport schoolchildren via a detour through Orland and North Penobscot, Hatch said.

The principal at the Penobscot Community School, Jay Corbin, said he has met with bus drivers and school officials from both Penobscot and Castine. They have arrived at what Corbin said is a “solid plan” that will minimally impact students. 

In a message to school families, Corbin said a Penobscot bus will meet a Castine bus at Gary’s Fuel at the end of the New Road at 7:10 a.m., and take any students heading to George Stevens Academy (GSA) to the Penobscot school by 7:30 via Orland. From Penobscot, they will board a bus to GSA. 

There will also be a van at the Penobscot Community School for any students heading to Bucksport. The route will be reversed in the afternoon.