ELLSWORTH – The state, at the prompting of local legislators, has come up with a plan to allow heavy traffic to pass safely over Graham Lake Dam Bridge.

Last month, the Maine Department of Transportation said it would restrict traffic on the Route 180 bridge, which crosses the top of Graham Lake Dam at the southern end of the lake. DOT engineers found that the bridge needed immediate attention and that, for safety reasons, vehicles weighing more than 40,000 pounds should be barred from using it.

That got the attention of Ellsworth officials and business owners who said that there would be serious implications if vehicles such as firetrucks or gravel trucks could not get across the bridge. The only other way to get from Route 1A in Ellsworth to the western shore of Graham Lake is by Route 9, which would involve taking one of two alternate routes covering at least 20 miles.

The bridge has been posted with a lower weight limit, but on Thursday state officials indicated they had come up with a solution that will allow heavy vehicles to cross the bridge again. DOT plans to erect a temporary, one-lane bridge more than 100 feet long over the existing one. The temporary structure in effect will straddle the width of the dam without touching it or the existing bridge, allowing all road-legal trucks to pass safely from one side to the other.

“Our immediate concern is to assure the safety of the traveling public,” state DOT spokesman Herb Thomson said Thursday. “We’re working with the city to zero in on the best timing of this.”

Traffic signals at either end of the temporary one-lane bridge will control flow from one side to the other, according to Thomson. Officials hope to have the temporary bridge in place by the end of the month, but will have to close the road by the dam for about a week while the structure is being put in place, he said.

John Buxton, DOT assistant bridge maintenance engineer, said Thursday that the agency has been keeping an eye on the bridge for the past couple of years, but that late last year an inspection of the bridge revealed structural concrete was deteriorating underneath the lake side of the structure. There was nothing about the inspection that indicated there was anything wrong with the dam itself, he said.

The dam and bridge are both owned by Pennsylvania Power & Light. PPL has indicated it likely will go along with the DOT proposal, Buxton said.

The state has not found a long-term solution for how to route traffic from Ellsworth’s business district to Route 180 on the western side of the dam. Such a solution could feasibly involve the highway being re-routed to avoid having to cross over the power company’s infrastructure, Buxton said.

State Sen. Dennis Damon, who represents Hancock County and chairs the Legislature’s joint transportation committee, said he and other state legislators met Thursday with DOT officials to discuss the issue. He said it is important that DOT address the issue quickly.

“I am very pleased that we’ve been able to get the Department of Transportation to act in such an expeditious manner, recognizing the inconvenience and the loss of economy to the entire region,” Damon said.

Ellsworth City Manager Stephen Gunty said in a statement that the city likely will ask that the temporary bridge be erected during the week of Feb. 19, when schools are on vacation.

“The city is committed to working positively and cooperatively with MDOT to mitigate the detrimental aspects of this scenario,” Gunty said.