Drivers say goodbye to long Route 1 detour

COLUMBIA FALLS – Drivers who followed a 25-mile detour off U.S. Route 1 because of roadwork on Tuesday won’t have to make that long loop through Jonesport today.

A Department of Transportation supervisor said late Tuesday afternoon that the portion of Route 1 between Columbia Falls and Jonesboro closed by culvert replacement work would be open to traffic as of Monday evening.

Today DOT will make use of flaggers to send alternating lanes of traffic past the project.

The project area for the culvert replacement is located about two-tenths of a mile east of the intersection of Route 1 and Route 187, the Indian River Road. It falls between the driveways for two businesses, Toppin’s Diesel Repair and Boat Shop and the next-door Saco Falls Realty office.

“We will have another day of cleanup,” Dennis Gillespie, one of DOT’s assistant supervisors, said Tuesday. “Then we will do the paving by the end of the week and put in guardrails next week.”

Beyond that, DOT workers and equipment will likely be in the area over the next month, although delays should be minimal.

On Tuesday, Main Street in Jonesport got a windfall of traffic from all the diverted drivers.

Many of those diverted cars bore out-of-state license plates – because those drivers didn’t know about a shorter, faster alternative on roads north of Route 1.

Locals knew better, however.

“Yes, they do,” Gillespie laughed. “There is a back road through the Tibbettstown area [between Columbia Falls and Jonesboro], but those aren’t state-maintained roads. They are town roads and it’s very narrow.

“We don’t want to put drivers in a way where they could get lost or even hurt.”

The way along Centerville Road as the alternative unmarked detour added just two miles – not 25 – to the trip down Route 1.

As many as 3,600 cars travel that stretch of Route 1 in 24 hours, Gillespie said, citing 2005 figures.

There were some calls Tuesday to DOT. Most callers asked how much longer the detour would last instead of complaining about the inconvenience.

Meanwhile, one local businessman took advantage of the detour and set up his traveling produce stand in downtown Jonesport. He was selling “beets, squash, spuds and ‘matoes.”

Not surprisingly, business was better than usual for Tom Flaherty and Flaherty’s Farm Stand.

He has set up his roving truck summers in Jonesport since 1995 – but got there on only two or three days this year. The high price of gas has kept him from picking up fresh produce in Caribou as often as he used to.

But the Milbridge man got the idea on Monday that Tuesday would be a good day to go back to Jonesport.

“I was in Machias and saw the sign for the detour to Jonesport,” Flaherty said. “I figured there would be extra traffic. And we needed to see our people here anyway. The ladies love to make pies with our green pumpkins.”