The Mexico-Peru bridge will be closed for seven days beginning June 25, to raise railroad tracks to accommodate the road to the new bridge. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
PERU — The Mexico-Peru bridge will be closed for seven days beginning Monday, June 25, so workers can raise railroad tracks to accommodate the road to the new bridge, according to Catherine Mettey, resident engineer for the Maine Department of Transportation.
“The crossing is moving over for the new alignment, and we’ll have to raise it about two feet at the crossing,” Mettey said. “That means they’ve got to raise the track back 800 feet each way to bring that up that amount. There’s a lot of work involved.”
Mettey said the start of the detour had been postponed by a week because of a delay in the delivery of the railroad’s crossing signals, which, by federal law, have to be installed in order to use the crossing in a construction zone.
During the detour, traffic will be rerouted onto Route 108, the Veterans Memorial Bridge (next to the Rumford mill) and Route 2, a detour of about 8.5 miles.
Mettey said North Main Street will be open to local traffic for access to homes and businesses on the Peru side, via Route 108.
Access to the bottle redemption center on the Mexico end of North Main Street will also be maintained via Route 2. All businesses will remain open.
“We want to make sure that everyone knows that there’s going to be access,” Mettey said. “There will be signage. People will be able to get in there, turn around and come out. It shouldn’t be an issue.”
Mettey advised that motorists not attempt to go across the bridge.
“There’s going to be minimal area for larger vehicles to turn around,” she said.
Mettey said construction of the new bridge is on schedule.
“We’re not ahead of schedule,” she said. “Once we get this track raised, it won’t be long before we’ll be switching traffic. At most, a month after.”
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