FAIRFIELD — Fairfield officials received notification Tuesday from the state Department of Transportation that the three antiquated metal bridges spanning the Kennebec River from Fairfield to Benton will be replaced no later than 2002.

Community leaders had originally believed they would have to wait at least 10 years for replacement.

“There will be no more waiting at the light in Benton at 5 p.m. for the 6 p.m. crossing,” joked Clyde Dyar, Fairfield’s economic director.

“We are pretty excited,” said Town Manager Terry York. “Our state representative, Paul Tessier, lobbied hard for us, and the work on these bridges is long overdue.”

Rebuilding the bridges is key to economic development in Fairfield, said Dyar on Tuesday morning. “This construction is going to be extremely important for the whole area, Fairfield, Benton, Unity,” he said. “It will be part of an east-west route all the way to the coast.”

Widening Fairfield’s Main Street to allow for a better traffic flow will be part of the reconstruction, and Dyar said DOT has not determined whether the three bridges will be individually replaced or a single span will be constructed.

State Transportation Commissioner John Melrose told Dyar that a 1997 feasibility study of the bridge replacement was recently completed, and the $10.9 million project is recommended to begin almost immediately with preliminary engineering. Substructure strengthening efforts for the worst units will begin this year.

Dyar said 14,000 vehicles cross the three metal bridges daily. “That figure hasn’t grown in the last few years, and we suspect it is because people are finding alternative routes,” he said. “Our preliminary projections indicate that the economic growth to the area over the next 10 years will equal the cost of the bridge replacement.”

In addition, said Dyar, the bridge replacement will mesh with the town’s current downtown revitalization plans.

The town submitted an application in February for a Quality Main Street grant to leverage $400,000 in state money to redo the downtown area. Towns receiving QMS grants will be notified by the end of March.

If Fairfield is chosen, Dyar said, the QMS plan could be activitated as soon as approved and put out to bid by the end of September.