PROSPECT – The Downeast Gateway Bridge continues to take shape as it grows out from the two giant pylons over the river and back toward land.

The bridge deck is about 40 percent completed, according to Project Manager Tom Doe of the Maine Department of Transportation.

“We’ve built 18 segments out on each side of the pylon,” Doe said Friday as he led a brief tour of the bridge deck.

There are still 27 deck segments to be built before the bridge will be connected over the Penobscot River, and that won’t happen until late summer, Doe said.

Crews from Cianbro-Reed & Reed, the joint company formed to construct the bridge, also have installed 12 of the 40 cable stays that support the bridge deck.

Work has halted on the towers during the coldest of the winter months and will begin again in the spring.

The tower on the Verona Island side has reached its full height of 426 feet. The tower will top out at 447 feet after the stainless steel roof is added. That is 185 feet taller than the towers on the existing Waldo-Hancock Bridge.

The western tower on the Prospect shore now stands at 384 feet and will be completed in the spring. That part of the project will include an observation deck atop the tower.

The new deck is twice as wide as the bridge deck on the Waldo-Hancock Bridge. At 57.5 feet, the deck will include two 11-foot-wide travel lanes and two 7-foot-wide multiuse lanes for pedestrians and bicycles.

The bridge design also allows for future construction of an additional pedestrian-only walkway to be built off the upstream side of the bridge.

Crews are expected to begin work this month on the abutment on the Verona Island side of the river, and on the Prospect side in February.