CALAIS – The state has purchased all of the properties, Canada has spent millions of dollars building new roads, and both sides are speeding along in preparation for construction of a new bridge near the Calais Industrial Park to connect to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, city officials said Wednesday.

City Manager Linda Pagels said Wednesday the Maine Department of Transportation has completed the purchase of about 10 privately owned residences that were in the way of the bridge. “They acquired some city property in December 2005 and on May 1, 2006, they acquired the houses and some additional property from the city,” she explained.

Work on the bridge is expected to be completed by fall 2008.

And Canada has not sat idling. “Things are moving actually quite rapidly,” St. Stephen Mayor Bob Brown said Wednesday. “They let a contract go in February to clear the land between Church Street and the [St. Croix] river, and my understanding is there is another contract out there advertised to build the road between Church Street and the river and most of that work will take place this year.”

Although Maine’s Department of Transportation will build the bridge, Canada will pay half the cost.

Asked if he was pleased that Canada was well ahead of the “Yankees” when it comes to construction, Brown responded, “We like to think it’s a partnership. We are sure it will all be completed at the same time and both parts of the bridge we talk about, although it’s really just one, will meet in the center and everything will be fine.”

The next step: building the two customs facilities in a timely fashion.

Right now, two bridges connect Calais with neighboring St. Stephen, New Brunswick: the downtown Ferry Point Bridge and the Milltown Bridge, near the city’s Industrial Park.

Construction on the $50 million project is expected to begin this summer in the United States. Canada also will spend up to $50 million on the project. A new two-lane limited access road from the bridge will cross through the Calais Industrial Park to connect with U.S. Route 1.

The International Boundary Commission already has reviewed and approved the plan with conditions. Among the conditions: no international boundary monuments shall be damaged, disturbed or endangered by the work, and no additional objects or structures shall be placed within 10 feet of the international boundary line.

Several agencies have signed on to the project. The project remains listed as the Department of Homeland Security’s No. 1 border priority for the entire nation.

In addition to the latest developments, the project in 2002 received a “finding of no significant impact” from the Federal Highway Administration and in July 2005 a presidential permit from the U.S. State Department.

And although the bridge will bypass the two communities, Brown and Pagels agreed they would need good signage and a cooperative plan to attract tourists to their respective downtowns. “We have been looking at marketing the downtown … to work together to get folks starting now to come and use both of our downtowns and waterfronts and enjoy them,” she said.

And there are attractions -the Downeast Heritage Museum in Calais and Ganong’s Chocolate Museum in St. Stephen.

Opponents of the choice of the Calais site plan to hold a press conference in Bangor today and a rally Saturday at the former Airline Restaurant and Motel on Routes 9 and 1. They want the bridge in Baileyville.

The Friends of the Magurrewock have charged that the three-year process that included countless meetings and hearings to select a site was corrupt.

They also said they were concerned about the eagles that live in the nearby Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The road to the new bridge would continue to pass through the refuge. Pagels said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed with the DOT that the selected alternative was beyond the distance where construction projects would affect the eagles. The only suggestion the federal agency had, she said, was that the construction on the southern end of the road be done outside the nesting period between February and August.

“The FOM caravan of cars and trucks with signs and flyers will start in Baileyville [today] and travel to Bangor informing citizens along the way of the corruption of MDOT in selecting Calais as the site for a 3rd International Bridge and the corruption within the Baldacci administration for refusing to undo the corruption of a former administration,” FOM said in a press release.

Today’s press conference will be held on the lawn of the Maine DOT building in Bangor. The rally will be held Saturday. For more information about the press conference or rally call Bill Szirbik at 427-3817 or 214-8957.