OLD TOWN-MILFORD – Progress is being made to alleviate traffic congestion resulting from the Old Town-Milford bridge replacement project.

The tremendous amount of rain the area received in the last few weeks hasn’t helped the construction process, and at times it has taken nearly an hour to cross the bridge, according to some residents.

Reed & Reed, a general contractor from Woolwich, began constructing a detour bridge in July upstream from the existing bridge. The detour is expected to be completed by the first part of November and should help with traffic flow, particularly during the morning and evening commute.

“As soon as that’s open, they expect that that will alleviate most of the problem,” Old Town Police Chief Kyle Smart said Tuesday.

City and police officials, the Maine Department of Transportation, and the contractor met last week to discuss traffic flow controls and complaints about the project.

“Prior to last week’s meeting, we had been called out quite regularly [to direct traffic],” Smart said. Two weeks ago, the rain washed out a portion of the road.

“That caused quite a mess,” Smart said. “This past weekend with the amount of rain that we got, the road was so rough that the traffic had to go extremely slow.”

The project was altered slightly at the beginning of this week to make the roadway wider to allow two lanes to be open most of the time, he explained.

“We’re checking the traffic all the time now to keep an eye on what’s happening,” Smart said.