Route 180 bridge opens well ahead of schedule

ELLSWORTH – A temporary bridge on Route 180 over Graham Lake was opened to traffic Thursday afternoon, well ahead of a schedule outlined by the Maine Department of Transportation.

For Ellsworth officials, the news couldn’t come soon enough.

Since the current bridge closed completely on Tuesday to allow the new bridge to be built, some motorists have not been keen to the idea of detouring around Graham Lake.

Instead, cars and trucks had been traveling over the ice-covered lake on a two-mile stretch marked by signs and cones.

While some may have thought the detour was resourceful, Ellsworth Fire Chief John Marshall said it was simply dangerous.

“I think some people just wanted to do it to say they had,” Marshall said Thursday. “If it was any other lake, I may not have worried, but there’s a strong current that runs through Graham Lake.”

Luckily, though, no problems were reported this week related to vehicles traveling over the lake, Marshall said.

The temporary bridge, built by Maine DOT in less than three full days, will allow alternating traffic to pass from both directions and will be controlled by a traffic light.

Early last week, DOT gave an estimate of completion at anywhere between four and 13 days.

“It’s at least 24 hours ahead of the best-case scenario,” City Council Chairman Gary Fortier said Thursday afternoon. “We’re real impressed with the hard-working state DOT folks.”

Best of all, the new span can accommodate vehicles up to 100,000 pounds.

The temporary span was built essentially on top of an existing bridge that Maine DOT officials determined needed to be repaired.

Below the bridge is a hydroelectric dam between Graham Lake and the Union River. The dam was not affected by the bridge conditions.

In January, DOT officials informed Ellsworth leaders that the old bridge would be posted to one lane and restricted to vehicles weighing less than 40,000 pounds.

That decision drew fire from local leaders, and the DOT agreed to build a temporary span that could accommodate much heavier trucks such as fire engines and dump trucks.

To build that temporary bridge, though, the existing span had to be closed entirely.

Some motorists, facing the possibility of a 20-mile detour around Graham Lake, decided instead to travel over it.

That detour started about a mile down Route 179 from its intersection with Route 180. Two small signs warned motorists that the ice may be unsafe, but tire tracks had worn a clear path along the lake.

Marshall said he didn’t know how many cars had traveled over the lake.

Another detour had opened earlier this week on land owned by R.F. Jordan & Sons Construction Inc., he said, but it’s likely that not enough people knew about that option.

Either way, neither detour is needed anymore.

“We’re pleased that it has happened so quickly. Truthfully, so many things could have gone wrong to push the schedule back,” Marshall said.