Bridge truck ban raises anxiety Decision on Waldo-Hancock span complicates community needs

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PROSPECT – There is a good chance that tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks never again will be allowed to cross the Waldo-Hancock Bridge, according to officials.

What alternatives might be put into place, however – aside from redirecting such trucks 40 miles out of their way through Bangor until a new bridge is built – have yet to be decided.

The ban implemented Friday on vehicles weighing 12 tons or more from crossing the 72-year-old span has raised the concern of officials from communities on each side of the bridge and has prompted criticism of the way the state has handled the matter.

On Saturday, officials from communities on both sides of the river grilled Bruce Van Note, Maine Department of Transportation deputy commissioner, about what the state is doing to address not just the physical state of the bridge but also the needs of people to get back and forth across the Penobscot River each day.

“We’ve been looking at pontoon bridges. We’ve been looking at military bridges,” Van Note told people who gathered at the press conference at a Route 1 rest stop on the western side of the bridge, which connects the towns of Prospect and Verona. Ferry service also is being considered in the event the bridge has to be closed completely, he said.

“I can’t guarantee that’s not going to happen,” Van Note said about the possibility of prohibiting all vehicular traffic from the bridge.

Despite the adverse economic impact of the truck ban, the deputy commissioner said, public safety is the department’s paramount concern.

“We don’t make this decision lightly,” Van Note said.

Dave Milan, Bucksport’s economic development director and chairman of the project’s public advisory committee, said Sunday he has talked to state officials since the truck ban was implemented Friday and now is not so concerned that a ban on all vehicles is soon to follow.

“I’m feeling a lot more confident that decision is not as imminent as it might have appeared initially,” he said. “It’s going to be a long time, if ever, before truck traffic is ever allowed back on the bridge.”

Van Note said more bridge engineering specialists were on their way to Maine to examine the structure and to help reach a more definitive solution on what the span’s weight limit should be.

“It’s possible that we can lift this restriction, but we don’t anticipate that at this time,” Van Note said. “We will do whatever it takes to enforce the truck weight limit.”

Bill Sneed, Prospect’s first selectman, said Saturday that all of Prospect’s publicly funded pupils are bused to Bucksport schools. He asked Van Note whether the town’s buses would be allowed back and forth over the ailing bridge.

“We’ll be contacting each of the local [school] administrative districts,” Van Note told Sneed. “It may require shifting of smaller buses.”

Sneed said after the press conference that fire engines’ crossing the bridge is not an issue because Prospect has no mutual aid firefighting agreements with towns on the other side of the river. He said many of Prospect’s businesses are trucking firms that frequently use the bridge.

John Hyk, a Waldo County commissioner, said after the press conference that the DOT should provide the project’s public advisory committee with documentation about the physical state of the bridge.

“We need a higher level of trust,” said Hyk, adding that local officials have been concerned that the state has not had the situation properly assessed.

“All the naysayers turned out to be right,” Hyk said. “Every day it gets worse.”

Milan said Sunday he believes the state has been doing the best it can with the information it has had.

“We knew this was going to be the next logical step,” Milan said of the truck ban. “The consumer is ultimately going to be paying the price [of rerouting truck traffic].”

Vehicles weighing 12 tons or more were banned from the bridge late Friday afternoon after consultants on the bridge’s renovation project determined that the bridge might not be as safe as had been thought previously.

Van Note said Saturday that approximately 10,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day, as many as 15,000 each day in the busy summer season. Based on Van Note’s estimate that heavy trucks make up 8 percent of the number of vehicles on the road, 800 heavy trucks that typically cross the bridge each day will have to find an alternative route.

“We understand the impact that has on trucking companies,” Van Note said. “I tell you, it is a more comfortable feeling [on the bridge] with the trucks off it.”

Gov. John Baldacci was in Prospect on Saturday afternoon with DOT Commissioner David Cole to “get a firsthand look at the bridge,” according to Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey.

“He believes that is the right thing to do,” Umphrey said of Baldacci’s support of the truck ban. “There is a consensus that [the ban] was necessary.”

Baldacci will stay “closely involved” with DOT officials as further steps on the issue are taken, Umphrey said.

Maine State Police troopers were stationed at both ends of the bridge Saturday to make sure trucks weighing 12 tons or more did not cross the bridge. A typical passenger car weighs between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds, according to Van Note.

State employees have been stationed on the bridge to listen for cracking sounds in the two major cables, each of which consists of 1,369 wire strands, Van Note said. The state hopes to have electronic listening devices in place soon to monitor the bridge for further deterioration, he said.

Hyk said the state should not have waited 72 years to conduct its first major inspection of the bridge’s support cables.

“This is what’s going to happen when you have tax cut after tax cut after tax cut, and you send billions of dollars to Iraq,” Hyk said.

Full closure of the bridge, he said, “would be a nightmare.”