OLD TOWN - The Maine Department of Transportation will be intermittently closing traffic lanes on the Llewellyn Estes Bridges that carry Stillwater Avenue over the Stillwater River in Old Town in the coming weeks. These lane closures are necessary to allow paving work on the approaches for the temporary bridge. There will be an alternating, single-lane traffic pattern during these closures. They will only happen between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. from Monday, November 6th through Friday, November 17th. Each lane closure is not expected to last longer than two hours.

On-site construction work for the temporary bridge began on July 24th. Traffic is expected to begin using the temporary bridge by the end of April 2024. This temporary bridge will carry two-way vehicle traffic, a pedestrian sidewalk, and temporary utilities in preparation of the replacement of the existing bridge system.

Woolwich-based bridge contractor Reed & Reed, Inc. is working with MaineDOT through a Construction Manager/General Contractor design agreement to streamline design and construction activities for the replacement of the two Llewllyn Estes Bridges. The awarded amount for this first phase of construction is $10 million. Additional contracts will be awarded for future phases of the bridge replacement work. A contract for the nearby highway work was awarded to Gordon Contracting of Sangerville on June 29th for $10.9 million.