ELLSWORTH – State officials said Tuesday that work on widening High Street will begin sometime this summer, but how quickly it will be done and whether the project will be supported by historic preservationists remain to be seen.

Work on adding another southbound lane to the northern end of High Street originally was expected to get under way last fall, but was postponed until this spring.

Last month Maine Department of Transportation officials said the project likely would not be started until this summer, but this week state and local officials said substantial work may not begin until after Labor Day.

Mark Honey, a local historian on the Ellsworth Historic Preservation Commission, said Tuesday that his group has raised concerns about the widening plans with DOT officials.

He said that by shifting the road, historic properties on the eastern side of the road will be adversely affected by losing what little yard they have.

“We are the thorn is this project,” Honey said of the city’s historic preservation group. “We feel that when you peel back the highway to the front porch, you’ve lost the uniqueness of those buildings.”

State highways connecting Ellsworth with Bangor, Bar Harbor, Bucksport and Machias converge on High Street.

Earle Shettleworth of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission said Tuesday his group wants to make sure the widening affects three properties in particular as little as possible.

He said the project will adversely affect three abutting pre-1900 homes between St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and Cadillac Mountain Sports. The properties now are used as professional offices and as part of a motel.

Shettleworth said his group is waiting to hear from federal officials to find out if 11-foot-wide travel lanes are acceptable under federal standards or if the lanes have to be 12 feet wide, as DOT officials have indicated. He said his group is opposed to plans that include a sidewalk in front of these houses.

“We had felt if the sidewalks were eliminated, it would help maintain the setting of the properties,” Shettleworth said.

Kenneth Sweeney, DOT’s director of project development, said Tuesday that DOT hopes to resolve the historians’ concerns sometime in the next several days and to hire a contractor for the project by late June.

He said the Maine Historic Preservation Commission can file an appeal with the Federal Highway Administration if it objects to the state’s final plans, but DOT still hopes to begin overhead utility work early this summer.

“I don’t see where there’s going to be an issue,” Sweeney said. He said the historic group has seen and approved DOT’s projections for how the properties will look after the project is done and that the state does not plan to build sidewalks in front of the historic homes.

The project should be completed by the end of 2005, but when ground might be broken depends on a variety of factors, said Sweeney. It depends on the contractor’s schedule, whether work will be done at night, and how these factors converge with busy travel periods such as the July 4 weekend.

“They may elect to start after Labor Day,” Sweeney said. “I don’t know.”