DOT goal to build new bridge by 2005

AUGUSTA – The state wants to build a new Waldo-Hancock Bridge over the Penobscot River by July 1, 2005, a transportation official told legislators Wednesday.

But a completion date in 2006 is “probably more likely,” Deputy Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note said during a hearing.

Van Note also said DOT estimates it will need $57 million to $87 million to build the new bridge, maintain and strengthen the existing bridge to keep it open during construction, and deal with the old bridge after the new one is built.

Van Note acknowledged to the Legislature’s Transportation Committee that the 2005 target is only a goal. “We don’t know yet whether we can pull that off.”

The department has speeded the process for building a structure to replace the 72-year-old Waldo-Hancock Bridge, which carries Route 1 across the river. Last month, deterioration in the bridge’s main cables forced DOT to post the bridge, banning vehicles weighing more than 12 tons.

Department officials had indicated previously that it would take until 2006 to construct a new bridge, and Van Note acknowledged that this is an ambitious schedule. He indicated that the early completion date would ease the economic impact on the region.

“The goal is to get it built before the tourist season that year,” he said. “The difference of three months makes a big difference to that area.”

Van Note stressed that the department is still in the early stages of planning the new bridge. The department has hired a designer for the new bridge, but is just beginning to hire a contractor to build the bridge.

“We are getting some resistance as we talk to contractors,” he said. “But it took 18 months to build the existing bridge [in 1931]. We should be able to do it now.”

The department already has spent $10 million on the existing bridge, part of a $25 million renovation-upgrade, and expects to spend another $7 million, including adding supplemental cables which will ease the load on the existing cables by about 50 percent. That might allow DOT to raise the posted limit on the bridge above the current 12 tons.

Because of prior contractual commitments, the contractor for cable work on the bridge, Piasecki Steel Construction Co., Castleton, N.Y., cannot complete the addition of the supplemental cables, Van Note said, so the department has hired Pittsfield-based Cianbro to install the support cables. The department hopes to have those cables in place by Nov. 1.

No decision has been made on the final disposition of the existing bridge, he said. The estimated cost of dismantling the bridge would be about $15 million. Upgrading the bridge, which would involve installing new main cables, would cost an estimated $45 million.

The total financial need, Van Note said, will be $82 million to $112 million, depending on the disposition of the existing bridge. The department had earmarked $25 million for the renovation, leaving the $57 million to $87 million range as the unmet financial need.

The federal government usually contributed about 80 percent of the cost of construction projects like this.

Transportation Commissioner David Cole told the committee that while the department receives regular federal funding based on a formula, it will need to have additional “ear marks” or special federal funds for the bridge construction.

Cole said the department is working with the state’s congressional delegation, but that the level of federal funding is still unknown. “We do not know how much money we will get for the bridge this year or in future years,” he said.

The department plans to allocate $5 million for the bridge project from a planned transportation bond issue this year, and probably another $5 million in a future year.

That would cover the state’s share of the low-end cost figures if it receives the full 80 percent in federal funding. If the full federal funding does not come through, the department likely would have to seek additional state funds or postpone other planned projects.