VERONA – The Maine Department of Transportation has completed baseline testing on wells on both sides of the Penobscot River near the construction site for the new bridge that will span the river.

The department began the testing in mid-January and completed work last week, according to DOT spokeswoman Carol Morris. The tests are designed to provide baseline information in order to measure the impact construction blasting and pile driving might have on surrounding wells.

“Any time we do anything that will create vibrations, we always test,” Morris said Tuesday.

The department usually tests wells within a 100-foot radius of a construction project, she said, but in this case expanded the test area to a 500-foot radius on both the Prospect and Verona sides of the river.

“Because of the large amount of ledge we’ll be taking out [in Prospect] and the deepness of the pile driving [in Verona], we decided to expand the test area,” she said.

In Prospect, the DOT plans to remove about 160,000 cubic yards of bedrock by blasting. On Verona, the process of pile driving 90 feet below the ground surface often can have the same type of effect as blasting.

“Blasting, or in this case, pile driving, can sometimes set up vibrations that adversely affect nearby wells by fracturing the rock formations that channel underground water,” DOT project manager Tom Doe said in a press release. “We try to minimize the damage, but should any occur, we take care of it. This is a normal part of any construction project.”

The testing results will provide baseline information against which the DOT can measure any changes as the project moves ahead. Area wells were tested for 16 water-quality parameters under the Department of Human Services guidelines.

Since the project began, the department has received several calls from homeowners expressing concerns. So far, only one concern has been determined to be related to the construction project, Morris said. That incident involved the loss of water flow to a nearby home.

Morris said the department provided the family with drinking water. Although the water flow started to come back on its own, she said, the department also conducted a “hydrofracture” process on the well, shooting a high-pressure stream of water into the well in an effort to open up fractures in the bedrock that might have been clogged.

The process appears to be working, Morris said, and the water flow has increased, although a caregiver at the home said Tuesday that the water has an odor and the family is not using it for drinking.