State caps city’s share of road costs Ellsworth to contribute no more than $90,000 to State and Oak project

ELLSWORTH – Local officials, concerned about having to contribute money to area road-improvement projects, were told Monday that two such projects will cost the city no more than $90,000.

Jim Mansir, Maine Department of Transportation project manager, told city officials at a workshop Monday night that the city’s share of improvements to the intersection of State and Oak streets will be capped at 10 percent of the project’s anticipated $900,000 cost.

The city’s required share of improvements to the intersection of Routes 1 and 172 on Bridge Hill will be nothing, Mansir said.

“That one, surprisingly, has no local share,” Mansir said. He said he did not know why the city would not have to contribute any money to the Bridge Hill project.

The expected overall cost for the Bridge Hill project is between $300,000 and $400,000, according to the project engineer.

If improvements to the State and Oak streets intersection ends up exceeding $900,000, the overrun will be paid entirely by state and federal money, unless the overruns are caused by a specific design request from the city, Mansir said.

Mansir, Diane Morabito and James Eason of the Gardiner consulting engineering firm Casey & Godfrey, and city officials met Monday night at Ellsworth City Hall to discuss improvements to the intersection of State and Oak streets. Mansir said that the high accident rate at the intersection, caused by cars trying to pull out of State Street onto Route 1A, was the primary reason DOT wanted to improve the intersection.

Planned changes to the intersection include the installation of a three-color traffic signal, turn lanes onto State Street from both directions on Route 1A, and alterations to entrances to nearby properties.

Mansir said concerns voiced by Ellsworth residents at a public hearing in May led the state to decide to add a left-hand turn lane into the southern entrance to the Mill Mall on Route 1A, just north of the intersection. The mall and the local YMCA have agreed to combine their entrances off Route 1A, he said.

The project will go out to bid this fall, but probably will not be completed until late next spring, Mansir said.

“I think it’s going to run into late June,” he said.

Ellsworth officials pressed Mansir about synchronizing the new traffic signal with nearby lights at the high school entrance and at High and Main streets, but the project manager said there were no plans to coordinate any lights in Ellsworth.

The state plans to hold another public hearing in Ellsworth on the Bridge Hill project on Sept. 15, Mansir said.