Motorists who use I-295 between exits 3 and 4 in South Portland may experience delays between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. tomorrow, Friday, April 1 as the right travel lane and shoulder area will be closed in order for construction crews to unload overhead sign trusses and supports that will be installed next week.
The large trusses will be offloaded onto the grass shoulder area where they will be assembled in preparation for their installation for next week. Variable message boards have been installed alerting motorists to the lane closures.
Next week, starting Monday night at 10:00 p.m., crews will start the process of erecting the signs over the interstate. During the actual installation, crews must close the interstate for a maximum of 15 minutes, possibly up to three times that night in order to install these trusses which span the entire width of I-295. These closures will all occur between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. Prior to their installation that night, there will be a travel lane and shoulder closure, but two lanes of traffic in each direction will remain open. Crews will repeat the process on Tuesday night in order to install the remaining trusses.
The installation of these signs are part of the I-295 exits 3 and 4 safety and transportation improvement project which added an additional travel lane between the exits, included the addition of cable guardrail in the median, and the construction of a soundwall on the east side of the northbound lanes.