RUMFORD — The Maine Department of Transportation will hold a public hearing next month to discuss a culvert replacement on Andover Road.

It will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, in the Conference Room at Rumford Town Hall.

The culvert is 2.29 miles north of the intersection of Route 2 over Meadow Brook, just beyond the Jed Martin Road.

“The department is particularly interested in learning local views relative to project consistency with local comprehensive plans, discovering local resources and identifying local concerns and issues,” according to an MDOT news release.

Accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Auxiliary aids will be provided on advance request.

For more information on the project, write to Steve Bodge, Project Manager, Maine Department of Transportation, Bridge Program, 16 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0016 or call 441-6850 or email stephen.bodge@maine.gov.

In other MDOT news for Rumford, Town Manager Carlo Puiia said Thursday that several projects are in the works for 2014 and 2015.

Douglas Coombs, a project manager for MDOT’s Region 3 Western Zone based in Dixfield, told Puiia in an email that a three-quarter inch overlay on Route 108 is planned for next year. It would begin at the intersection of North Main Street in Peru and extend 4.7 miles to the Canal Bridge in Rumford. It will not include the new Rumford Business Park entrance.

Puiia said MDOT would like to change the project to reconstruct:

* Veterans Street from the Route 108 intersection to the Rumford end of the Androscoggin River bridge.

* Route 2 starting at Prospect Avenue to the Swift River bridge. This project would also include adding new curbing and resetting old curbing and removing barriers for the American Disabilities Act.

Coombs told Puiia the MDOT is proposing these changes due to the current conditions of Route 2 versus those of Route 108.

He said the federal source of funding for the Route 108 project is High Priority Projects funds, which were used for work on Route 108.

The MDOT would not require Rumford to participate in the 20 percent non-federal funding match, unless the town added to the scope of the project, such as sidewalk work that would require an agreement with MDOT for the cost of added work, Coombs said.

In 2015, MDOT would like to replace Canal Bridge on Route 108 rather than continue to repair it, Puiia said. Railings and concrete sections of the bridge were damaged in April when a logging truck lost a load of wood that rolled over on the bridge. Some of the damaged railings have yet to be replaced.

MDOT will remove the Haverhill Bridge that provides access to the NewPage Inc. mill and to Brookfield Power from Upper Congress Street behind Rite Aid. It is replacing the 365-foot, concrete-and-steel-girder span with a less costly sloping road.

Additionally, MDOT will remove the 57-year-old, 600-foot-long Martin Memorial Bridge over the Androscoggin River at Rumford Point, replacing it with a new one 600 feet upriver. That project, estimated to cost $9,311,116, includes extending Route 232 to the new span to connect with Route 2. It is expected to be completed in 2015.

Puiia said he is pleased the MDOT is investing substantial money and work in Rumford.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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