PROSPECT – Crews have completed the blasting that has created a new U.S. Route 1 approach to the bridge being built across the Penobscot River. The concrete barriers that have protected the existing road from the blast site will be removed later this week.

Blasting ended earlier this month and crews from Lou Silver in Veazie have begun installing drainage in the ledge cut and grading the road base. The blasting has removed more than 158,000 cubic yards, or about 281,000 tons, of rock from the site since the operation began in October. An estimated 70 percent of that has been used on the bridge project.

The process has left a granite outcropping located between the newly blasted approach to the bridge and Route 1. There are three reasons for this, according to information on the Maine Department of Transportation Web site.

First, the rock will naturally slow traffic down as motorists round the curve approaching the bridge, adding an additional level of safety to the new approach. Second, the rock will deflect traffic noise away from the fort and riverfront areas. And finally, removing the additional rock would have cost upwards of a half-million dollars.

Work to clear vegetation and other materials from the outcropping to give it a neater appearance will take place after Route 1 traffic is rerouted through the new approach, tentatively scheduled for spring 2006. That will allow the work to be done without affecting traffic.

The concrete “Jersey” barriers along the Route 1 shoulder adjacent to the blasting site will be removed Thursday. Crews will maintain work during the process, but a shifting of the travel lanes may slow traffic. There may be intermittent traffic stops as workers clear away loose rock.

Flaggers will be on site to direct motorists during the process.

The barriers were installed in March after a large piece of the ledge fell onto the road and was struck by a motorist.

Meanwhile, crews from Cianbro/Reed & Reed continue work on the bridge structure itself. The tower has now reached an elevation of more than 255 feet, taller than the towers on the existing Waldo-Hancock Bridge, which the new structure will replace. Workers have installed the first pairs of temporary stays to support the bridge deck as it is built out from the towers, and have installed the first set of cradles that will hold the first permanent stays.