VERONA – The Maine Department of Transportation is the proud foster parent of two osprey chicks.

MDOT crews reported Monday that the chicks had hatched in one of the artificial nests the department had installed near the Waldo-Hancock Bridge, the site of a major bridge project this summer.

Two pairs of osprey had been nesting on the bridge for several years, one pair on each of the tall bridge towers. With the proper federal permit, MDOT crews moved their nests to the artificial sites nearby so that crews could begin work on the main cables and suspender cables on the bridge.

For a while, the osprey rejected the new sites and persisted in trying to build their nests. One pair finally accepted the pre-built accommodations and established a nest there. The other pair apparently opted for natural surroundings in the wild.

“We don’t know where the other pair went,” Carol Morris, MDOT spokeswoman said Monday.

Both chicks seem to be doing well, Morris said.

Meanwhile, a crew from Piasecki Steel Construction, the contractor for this phase of the $25 million bridge-rehabilitation project, is preparing to begin preliminary work this week. The crew is scheduled to install a temporary walkway outside the bridge structure that will allow them to work outside the travel lanes and to ease the impact on heavy summer traffic.

The aluminum walkway will be almost 3 feet wide, and crews plan to build it one section at a time. The first section will stretch from the west side of the bridge and will reach to the first tower. It will be built on the north or up-river side of the bridge.

That process will require that one lane of the bridge be closed each evening Monday through Thursday to allow delivery of materials to the bridge site. The closure will begin at 7 p.m., according to Morris, and both lanes should be open to traffic by dark.

Flaggers will be in place at both ends of the bridge in order to keep traffic moving across the bridge in the open lane.

Morris stressed that the walkway is not open to the public.

In fact, the bridge itself also will be closed to pedestrian traffic during the construction period because traffic will be traveling closer to the edge of the bridge and will reduce the safe zone for pedestrians, according to printed information from MDOT.

The MDOT is in the middle of the multi-year rehabilitation project on the 71-year-old bridge. Most of the work so far has been on the concrete supports underpinning the bridge structure.

This summer, the crews will be working on the main cables and suspender cables on the bridge. The project also includes installation of a new deck, scheduled to begin late in 2003 and painting the entire bridge, which should be completed by spring 2006.

Bridge work updates are available at 1-800-588-MDOT (588-6368).