State agency approves money for area bicycle path projects> Pedalists will have path linking Orono, UM and Old Town

ORONO — Several projects benefiting bicyclists have been selected for funding by the Maine Department of Transportation.

The Orono project also involves joint projects with Veazie, the University of Maine and with Old Town.

The acceptance of the application by MDOT now means that Orono will be eligible to receive funds covering 80 percent of the cost of expanding of its bikeway network.

Part of the application, drafted last July by summer interns Jeff Young and Scott Talcove, University of Maine graduates students, called for the development of a bikeway for about a mile and a quarter along Route 2 from the Kelley Road to the Orono-Veazie town line.

It is estimated that paving both sides of Route 2 an extra five feet, at a cost of 82 cents per square foot, would cost $58,519.30. The cost to the town of Orono will be approximately $11,700.

The construction will help create a regional bikeway that would connect Bangor, Veazie, Orono and Old Town and eventually Hampden, Hermon and Brewer, with one another.

For the Orono, University of Maine and Old Town portions of the project, the total estimated cost is $57,557.00.

Part of the project will include a new path linking the Old Town-Orono YMCA with the existing trail. It also calls for the installation of bicycle racks and lockers on the trail and at the University of Maine campus where the trail begins, to provide students with a place to park or store their bicycles. At present if UMO students want to protect their bicycles from the elements or theft, they have to take them inside their dormitories.

The town applied for funds for 15 bicyle racks, 15 storage lockers, and bicycle route signs at the university. The cost to the town for these items has been estimated at between $2,600 and $3,400.

The cost for making the connection to the YMCA and Shop ‘N Save lot in Old Town is estimated to be $7,500 for right of way work and $24,250 for construction of the trail.

Signs for the trail network are estimated to cost $8,700, the total cost for trail-side bicycle racks should be about $795 and the lockers are expected to cost about $16,296.

Administrative Assistant Mary Casciotti said Wednesday that although the MDOT has not yet identified the exact dollar amount of the grant, the decision “allows us to move to the next stage. We will work with them (MDOT) for more accurate engineering estimates for the cost of the project.”

Casciotti said that in addition to the summer interns, others who have worked on the project include Sally Jacobs of Orono, Orono Parks and Recreation Director Norman Piorier, Old Town Parks and Recreation Director Frank Comeau, and Campus Living Director Scott Anchors of the University of Maine.

The project will become part of the 1996-98 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program that requires federal approval. The earliest federal approval, and therefore funding, could occur in October 1995.