Ayers Island bridge now unsafe for heavy loads

AYERS ISLAND – The Maine Department of Transportation has deemed the bridge that runs from Orono to Ayers Island unsafe to hold more than 6,000 pounds. If repairs aren’t done soon, the bridge may be closed to all traffic, according to DOT officials.

“This limitation means that no firetruck, ambulance, oil truck, trash removal truck, heavy-duty pickup truck with plow, etc. may travel over the bridge,” Town Manager Cathy Conlow wrote this month in a memo to the council.

To replace the bridge would cost about $2.8 million, but neither the town nor the state has the money to fund that kind of project.

With no legal obligation to maintain the passage and no way to obtain grant money for repairs, the town’s hands are tied at this point, Assistant Town Manager David Struck said.

“The town has never adopted the bridge as a town way,” Struck said Wednesday.

Town officials now are waiting to hear from the island’s owner, George Markowsky, to see what other options might exist. Markowsky is out of the country until the end of April and couldn’t be reached Wednesday for comment.

The town acquired the bridge and the island when the now-defunct Striar Textile Mill went out of business and failed to pay taxes on the property, Struck explained.

Town officials in 2003 approved the sale of the island to Markowsky, a University of Maine professor. Since 1999, Markowsky had held a lease-purchase agreement for the 62-acre island with plans to build a research and development park.

Since the sale was completed, Markowsky has formed Ayers Island LLC and rents some of the former mill as office space, allows Maine’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Team to hold practice drills on the island, and stores equipment for other local rescue operations.

The 627-foot span from shore to shore actually comprises two bridges connected in the middle by a small island. The first bridge, the Island Avenue Bridge, is 125 feet long. The second, the Shady Mill Bridge, is 343 feet long, according to town officials.

The second bridge is the one that has been posted, but the first one likely will be posted soon if something’s not done, Struck said.

When Markowsky purchased the island, the town retained ownership of the bridge.

“[The town] owns it, but we don’t have it from the standpoint of it being a public way,” Struck said. “There isn’t a legal obligation to keep it up.”

In addition, the town doesn’t technically own the Ayers Island end of the bridge, so is not eligible to apply for grant money to help with repairs or replacement.

Even if the town were eligible for grant funding, there is a 50-50 match that would leave $1.4 million unfunded.

“[The bridge] is identified on the state’s six-year plan as a bridge that needs work, but there’s no money that’s attached for the project,” Struck said.

Even if the bridge were to be reduced to one lane, the repairs could cost about $800,000, Struck said.

Bridge replacement was proposed in 2000 but was not done because of lack of funding.