MILBRIDGE – The Maine Department of Transportation has announced that traffic on Route 1A in Milbridge will be detoured over a temporary bridge as crews prepare to remove the Great North Bridge, and eventually build a replacement.

The work was scheduled to begin Tuesday, March 17.

The DOT said in a press release Wednesday that temporary traffic signal lights are in place, and the signals will regulate alternating one-way traffic over the temporary bridge. “If the project proceeds as planned, it should be completed by the summer of 2009,” the press release states.

Reed and Reed Construction of Woolwich is the contractor for the project.