VERONA – Contrary to local concerns that the problems on the Waldo-Hancock Bridge have discouraged motorists from using it, state figures indicate bridge traffic was greater this summer than in the past.

Although traffic dropped immediately after the bridge was posted in July, the state’s figures indicate the average daily traffic, or ADT, on the bridge was significantly more than traffic during the same time period in 2000.

The Maine Department of Transportation compared traffic figures taken from monitors at the bridge to estimated traffic figures from 2000, according to DOT spokeswoman Carol Morris. The study also compared those figures with traffic counts from permanent counters in Kittery and Trenton.

The 2000 bridge traffic figures are the latest figures the department has, Morris said Thursday. The 2000 estimates are based on a weeklong traffic count done before the start of repair work on the bridge, Morris said.

Those numbers provided a baseline which the department, using a formula based on the class of road, developed into estimates of the amount of traffic on the bridge during different times of that year. Those estimates were adjusted to remove the 2000 truck traffic so the numbers could be compared with the 2003 bridge numbers.

“They’re not the actual numbers, but they’re a good estimate,” Morris said.

Those figures indicate that traffic on the bridge declined in the weeks after the bridge was posted, limiting traffic to vehicles under 12 tons, and remained below 2000 levels during the first two weeks in August.

The numbers, however, jumped sharply in the third week of the month and remained significantly higher than the 2000 estimates through the end of September. At its peak, the 2003 ADT exceeded the 2000 estimate by more than 2,200 vehicles, an increase of 28.1 percent, according to the state.

Those increases were well above the ADT percentage increases tallied in Kittery and Trenton, which ran between 3.6 and 8.8 percent during the summer. Those figures also were adjusted to remove truck traffic for comparison to the bridge traffic.

Morris said the department has not analyzed the figures and has no explanation for the increase. She suggested that publicity surrounding the bridge, including a DOT-run radio ad campaign, may have had an impact.

“That radio advertising campaign kicked in around the last week in July or the first week in August,” she said. “That may be the only difference. There was a lot of media coverage clarifying that the bridge was open.”

Although Rep. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, one of a group of legislators who requested the traffic report, has not yet seen the figures, he said the reports don’t match what local residents and business owners are seeing.

Although there has been an increase in heavy truck traffic on Route 15, Rosen said people aren’t using the bridge.

“We hear it every day. Customers on the Waldo County side are avoiding the bridge,” he said. “Either they take the 40-mile route around, or they don’t come at all.”

Since the current figures come from a mechanical counter, Bucksport’s Economic Development Director David Milan said Thursday that he accepts them, but added they were surprising and don’t seem to reflect what is happening on the road.

“My method is less scientific, but I can tell you it’s been an awful lot easier getting out onto Route 1 from the side streets than it has been in the past,” he said.

Morris said the department plans to match the traffic figures with state retail sales figures from the same time period to determine whether there was any correlation between the change in traffic and retail sales.

Those sales figures are collected quarterly and should be available early in October, and the report will be provided to the regional legislators, she said.