GOULDSBORO – Nearly two years after the state was supposed to give the green light to an extensive reconstruction of Route 186, work on the road that winds around Schoodic Peninsula is set to begin next week.

The nearly $4 million project coordinated through the Maine Department of Transportation will include rebuilding several miles that are part of the Schoodic Scenic Byway.

Dennis Lovely, who will serve as project manager for the DOT, said crews held a pre-construction meeting last week and are expected to start next Monday.

The repairs will be welcomed by many residents of the Schoodic Peninsula, who have been complaining for years about the poor condition of their main road. Winter Harbor Town Manager Roger Barto said this week the project is long overdue.

Lovely predicted the work on the western portion of Route 186, also known as West Bay Road, will take most of the spring, summer and fall months, but it will be done in stages.

“We hope to have the downtown part completed by June and the rest completed by the end of the year,” Lovely said.

As many as 40 crew members from Vaughn Thibodeau, the project’s contractor, will tear up asphalt, widen the roadway and lay down new road.

The project will limit that section of Route 186 to one-way alternating traffic, Lovely said, and delays are possible.

Although Route 186 is not a particularly high-traffic area, in the summer many venture to the Schoodic Point section of Acadia National Park, which is reached primarily by the route.

Lovely said the DOT also has approved another project for a smaller section of Route 186 adjacent to Route 1, but a timeline for those repairs has not been made.