MATTAWAMKEAG - The Maine Department of Transportation and its contracting partners will begin setting beams for the new Mattawamkeag Bridge in Mattawamkeag on Monday, April 11th. Beam-setting work is expected to continue through Tuesday, April 26th. The contractor plans to set two beams per day. There is a temporary bridge in place, but that bridge will be closed to traffic for approximately 15 minutes each time a beam is set.
This work is part of the project to replace the Mattawamkeag Bridge, which carries Route 2 over the Mattawamkeag River. The old structure was 94 years old and structurally deficient. Work on this replacement project began in December 2021 and is expected to be finished by December 2023.
Crews have installed a temporary bridge downstream from the existing bridge to allow for alternating, single-lane traffic controlled by temporary traffic signals during construction of the new bridge. While this temporary bridge is in use, access to Willow Street from Route 2 is prohibited. Traffic is being detoured using Depot Street (the next street over).
The contractor on this bridge replacement project is Reed & Reed, Inc. of Woolwich. The contract amount is $11,285,267. Funds from a discretionary federal TIGER Grant are helping to cover some of the costs of this and other bridge replacement projects.