DOT: Bridge elevator concept gets positive reaction

ORLAND – People will gather Wednesday for the second of the design workshops for the new Route 1 bridge over the Penobscot River linking Prospect and Verona.

The session will allow the public to review refined designs based on decisions made at the first workshop last month and to view a new design from the state Department of Transportation to include an elevator leading to an observatory atop one of the $80 million bridge’s towers.

The idea would require single-pylon towers to house the elevator and observatory rather than the more traditional H-tower design that both the local project advisory committee and residents at the previous workshop had preferred. In its recommendation earlier this year, DOT’s public advisory committee members specifically urged DOT not to pursue a single-pylon design.

Although there has not been much discussion about DOT’s new idea, which became public last week, David Milan, chairman of the public advisory committee, said Monday that most of the reaction he has heard has been positive.

“Everyone I’ve talked to thinks it’s an extremely exciting idea,” Milan said. “It’s not the bridge that the PAC members had wanted to see going in there and it’s still the one design that the PAC voted against. But if you step away from the last three years of PAC work, it’s a pretty neat idea.”

The idea of an elevator that could take visitors to the top of one of the 420-foot towers on the bridge would make the bridge a destination in itself, Milan said. “This certainly could stimulate economic growth in the region,” he said.

DOT officials will likely face questions about why they’ve added another option after months of discussion had singled out the H-tower design, usually referred to as Option 4.

Officials have indicated that they offered the latest option after the H-design raised concerns from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission that the structure would be too massive and would not fit in with the nearby Fort Knox historic site. The commission is working with DOT and the Federal Highway Administration through a federal process that will assess the impact of the new bridge on the fort.

Wednesday’s workshop will be a little more informal than the last one, according to DOT spokeswoman Carol Morris.

“We’ll show them some photos of the two options and we’ll also be showing some information on how granite could be used on either option,” Morris said Monday. “Then we’ll be hearing what they want to do.”

At the earlier workshop, residents chose “granite” as the overall theme for the bridge project. Designers from Figg Engineering, the architect for the bridge, plan to incorporate the granite theme into all aspects of the bridge design.

The department recently chose Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield and Reed & Reed of Woolwich to head the construction team that will build the new bridge. DOT officials hope to break ground by Dec. 1 and to open the new bridge by July 1, 2005.

The public meeting will be from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19, at the Alamoosook Lodge.