The Maine Department of Transportation will not seek federal funds for Wiscasset’s downtown improvement project, DOT Project Manager Ernie Martin said.
The DOT made the decision not to request Federal Highway Administration funds during a recent meeting of the design team. The decision was made to expedite the project, Martin said.
The project will move forward as planned, Martin said. The DOT will assume the full cost of the project, which is estimated to be between $4 million and $5 million, although the cost of materials is constantly in flux.
Officials hope the project will be ready for construction by spring 2018, Martin said.
Martin received word that the Federal Highway Administration had authorized the DOT to move forward with the project without it Tuesday, Sept. 13, he said. While final approval of Wiscasset’s downtown improvement project no longer hinges on federal historic preservation and environmental review processes, the DOT has its own review processes to follow.
Martin, who recently took the helm of the project when it moved from the planning phase to the design phase, will soon schedule a meeting with the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission, downtown business owners, and the Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce, he said.
Martin also plans to work closely with an advisory committee Wiscasset is in the process of forming, he said.
“The process is staying whole,” Martin said. “I fully intend to work with these groups. Due to the sensitivities in this area, we will ensure people have a voice at the table.”
The preliminary design phase of the project is funded, Martin said. Funding for construction will become available when the DOT develops its next three-year work plan, which will occur shortly, he said.
The only circumstance in which Wiscasset would be asked to contribute funding to the project is if the town requests additional work outside the current scope of the project, Martin said.
The decision not to pursue federal funds came after the design team reviewed the specifications of the project, Martin said. Federal funds are usually designated for highways, he said.
The downtown improvement project Wiscasset voters overwhelmingly supported at the polls relies heavily on work on the side streets in the downtown area, Martin said. There was concern that work may not even be eligible for federal funds, he said.
To expedite and simplify the process, the DOT decided to not pursue federal dollars, instead opting to fund the project solely through the state.
The removal of on-street parking between the intersections of Water and Middle streets with Route 1 has been a point of contention in the project design, with members of the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission and several downtown business owners opposed to it.
The true rendering of what the sidewalks and streets will look like when the project is complete will not be known until the DOT design team completes a “horizontal/vertical alignment report,” which will depict a concrete design, Martin has said.
Everything proposed up to this point has been conceptual, Martin said. The DOT is still working to secure a consultant to work with the DOT in the design phase, Martin said. “Hopefully, people will have patience as we move through this process,” he said.
Martin said there may be some aspects of the project where residents and the DOT disagree, but he hopes there is enough common ground to come up with a design that benefits everyone.
There were a lot of opinions expressed during the planning phase of the downtown improvement project, Martin said. Now is the time for “everyone in the room to roll up their sleeves to make this happen,” he said.
