ROXBURY — Maine Department of Transportation officials told residents Wednesday night of plans to replace four large culverts under Route 120 with a concrete box.
MDOT project manager Steve Bodge and project designer Bob Bulger said the 4-foot diameter culverts lie side by side.
“Of those four pipes, two of them were collapsed or plugged,” Bulger said. “They show no flow, while the other two pipes do.”
All four would be replaced by a 16- by 7-foot concrete box to increase the flow of water coming from Meadow Brook, he said.
MDOT also will raise the road 2.38 feet on a 750-foot stretch to help prevent flooding.
Bodge said one of the biggest decisions the town will have to make is whether they want to close Route 120 from Andover to Roxbury for the three-week project, or install bridges and traffic lights.
Selectman John Sutton asked Bodge which option MDOT was leaning toward.
“Right now, I’m not married to either option, John,” Bodge said. “If you decide to close the road, it allows us to have a better project overall. It’ll save us a few dollars and will be completed faster. If you decide to have bridges installed over the brook one-half at a time, it will likely turn into a two- or three-month project.”
Bodge estimated the savings of closing the road would be between $75,000 and $100,000.
Sutton said he was concerned about the mutual-aid agreement for firefighting that Roxbury has with Andover.
“If Andover had to get to our town, it would be awfully hard with that road closed down,” he said.
One resident asked what the projected life span of the concrete box would be.
“Normally, our boxes that aren’t reinforced would last about 60 to 80 years,” Bulger said. “The box we would be putting in is reinforced. I’m expecting this thing to last 100 years. They’re very good. Precast concrete is so much better mixed and cured than other kinds. It’s like something built in a lab.”
Bodge said he hoped to have a preliminary design report finished this year or in early 2014.
“After that, we would move on to our final design process and would hopefully advertise to contractors sometime during the fall of 2014,” he said. “If all goes according to plan, construction would be scheduled for 2015.”
Bodge estimated the project would cost about $825,000.
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- Maine Department of Transportation project designer Bob Bulger explains the culvert replacement project on Route 120 to Roxbury residents Wednesday evening at the Town Office.
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