BANGOR – City councilors this week awarded a construction contract for a road project that is key to several Bangor Mall-area commercial developments, including the new Wal-Mart Supercenter.

“This has been a long time coming,” Councilor Patricia Blanchette said just before the council’s 8-0 vote Monday night to award the contract to the low bidder.

Blanchette noted that the project has been on the city’s drawing boards for about 15 years.

The project aims to improve traffic circulation and access to several commercial developments along Stillwater Avenue, including the new Wal-Mart Supercenter under construction behind Blue Seal Feed

In fact, neither the Wal-Mart Supercenter nor the nearby smaller development that will result in a drive-through TD Banknorth branch and a retail building housing four to six small specialty stores can open until the extension and several other off-site traffic improvements are completed.

In Wal-Mart’s case, the state Department of Transportation imposed that condition as a requirement of the supercenter’s traffic movement permit. In the case of the smaller development, the condition was imposed by the city planning board last year.

The Hogan Road extension, which will be built this fall, will run between the Crossroads Plaza shopping center and the Country Inn, and by a shared interior access drive.

The extension will be built by S.H. Bridges Construction of Bangor, which submitted a $392,522 bid for the work, the lowest of seven the city received.

The city, which has long planned to extend Hogan Road, last year put that project and other mall area traffic improvements on a fast track to help the Supercenter and other projects move forward.

In April of last year, city councilors approved a commitment letter to the state Department of Transportation, agreeing to take on a series of off-site traffic improvements, including construction of the Hogan Road extension; the widening of Bangor Mall Boulevard, Springer Drive and Hogan Road; the addition of turning and through lanes on Stillwater Avenue; and improvements to traffic signals throughout the area.

Some of that work has been completed and the rest is slated to begin this fall, city officials said recently.

Wal-Mart last year agreed to contribute $250,000 toward the cost of the Hogan Road extension, expected to cost about $400,000. The extension also will involve shifting the end of Kittredge Road closest to Hogan Road to address a tricky intersection angle.

City Engineer Jim Ring said last year that the Hogan Road extension is part of the city’s effort to reduce traffic congestion on Stillwater Avenue.

The city originally planned to build a parallel service road, but that would have required cutting a swath through the Penjajawoc watershed, a concept panned by local environmentalists.

In other meeting business, councilors:

. Authorized more than $2 million in energy conservation measures at Bangor International Airport.

The work, which will be funded with airport revenues, will include a series of projects that aim to make several of the buildings there, namely several large hangars, weather tight.

The work will not, however, include the installation of a biomass boiler. City officials are still researching whether a wood-chip boiler would be the best heating option for the airport’s largest structures.

. Voted to allow city employees to buy, at their own expense, personal accident, cancer and critical care-specified incident insurance coverage from the American Family Life Insurance Co., better known as AFLAC.

. Added a definition of open space to the land development code.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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