Hearing set on bid to halt Calais bridge construction

CALAIS – A federal judge has set a hearing date for later this month to consider a preliminary injunction filed by a group seeking to halt construction of a roadway leading to a new bridge connecting Calais with St. Stephen, New Brunswick.

In May, the group asked the judge to put the brakes on road construction through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.

The hearing before U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock has been set for 1 p.m. Friday, June 15, in federal court in Bangor.

Lynne Williams, the Bar Harbor attorney for the Friends of Magurrewock, said Thursday that her request for a preliminary injunction was still alive.

In May, Williams filed the paperwork on behalf of the Baileyville-based nonprofit corporation, after learning that the state was about to begin roadwork in the refuge.

In April, the group filed its original lawsuit in federal court to stop construction of the $120 million international bridge in neighboring Calais.

The Friends are worried about the impact the new bridge and roadwork leading to it would have on the nearby Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. The group has instead proposed having the new bridge located in Baileyville where it would bypass the refuge.

As proposed, the third bridge is expected to be completed in 2008.

Traffic from the new bridge would pass through the refuge on Route 1 on its way to Route 9.

Traffic already passes through the refuge from the city’s other two bridges – the downtown Ferry Point Bridge and the Milltown Bridge, near the city’s industrial park.

Although some area residents have expressed alarm that the Friends lawsuit would delay the project, DOT spokeswoman Meg Lane said Thursday that some of the construction was continuing.