Construction on High Street in Damariscotta will begin Thursday, Aug. 27.
Hagar Enterprises Inc., of Damariscotta, is the contractor for the project, which will involve the regrinding and recycling of the pavement as well as the repaving of the road surface. Once the work on High Street is completed, the crew will move on to work on Branch Road.
Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus said depending on the weather, both projects could be finished by the first week in September. There will be partial closures on both roads at various times during construction.
Lutkus announced at the Damariscotta Board of Selectmen meeting on Aug. 19 the long-awaited construction of a new sidewalk on Bristol Road from downtown Main Street to the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth will be delayed yet again.
“When I arrived in December 2011, the town was in the process of selecting an engineer for the project,” Lutkus said. “We haven’t turned a shovelful of dirt on it yet. It’s very frustrating.”
The delay is a result of issues with the state right-of-way that also held up the project in October 2014.
“The state has to go through each lot to see what lots the state owns and what they have to acquire using a host of historical records,” Lutkus said.
Lutkus estimated the survey to determine the right-of-way will take approximately nine months. The state is looking to advertise for contractors in September 2016, which means construction would not begin until spring 2017 at the earliest.
Currently, the budget for the project is $489,620. The town is responsible for 20 percent of the cost. Lutkus said the budget may change due to additional costs for right-of-way acquisition, as well as factors that may have changed since the estimate was created.
“I have to ask the engineer to re-estimate the cost of the project since it will have been four years since they did,” Lutkus said. “The town’s money is set aside in a fund earning interest and the federal money administered by the Maine Department of Transportation is allocated and waiting on the right-of-way mapping and acquisition to occur so we can start this project.”
