Racino concrete pre-casts resume rolling into city

BANGOR – Pre-cast concrete blocks and columns, weighing between 45,000 and 65,000 pounds each, will resume rolling into the city on trucks today.

And the trucks, some as long as 85 feet, will have to negotiate the curves and sharp turns of downtown streets, since many will exceed the 80,000-pound weight limit, which bans them from using I-395.

The concrete casts will be assembled to form the parking garage at the Hollywood Slots racino on Main Street.

Amy Kenney, company spokeswoman, said Friday the delivery of the concrete began last week but was suspended for the duration of the American Folk Festival.

Vern Seeley, transportation technician for ITS Fleet Maintenance of St. John, New Brunswick, the trucking firm delivering the concrete components, said Friday that not using I-395 will not pose a major problem for the delivery job.

But it underscores an ongoing problem, he said, as his company’s trucks must regularly use secondary roads like Route 2 to avoid I-95 and its weight limits. Seeley is one of many in the transportation industry calling on federal officials to raise the weight limit to 100,000 pounds for I-95.

Seeley said 824 truckloads will make up the delivery, beginning in St. John, where the concrete parts are made. The delivery will take about two months to complete, he said.

“They could get up to 15 to 25 trucks per day,” he said, depending on how quickly the components are set into place by a crane on the job site.

The trucks, some with six axles and 22 wheels, will follow Route 9 after crossing into Maine.

“Route 9 has been improved an awful lot,” Seeley said and expects no problems or special traffic concerns.

Kenney said Hollywood Slots is aiming to have the buildings closed-in to the weather by November with a July 2008 opening of the facility projected.