A digital sign in Newcastle informs motorists that “Route 129” will be closed from 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 24 to 6 a.m., Thursday, April 26. The closure is of a section of Bristol Road in Damariscotta between School Street and Main Street. (Jessica Picard photo)
For the last week or two, we have received more inquiries about one local issue than any other.
Not the Wiscasset lawsuit.
Not school choice in Alna.
Not the bank robbery in New Harbor.
The questions have come largely from residents of South Bristol, and go something like this: Why is Route 129 going to be closed? Followed by: How am I going to get to work? And: How are the kids going to get to Lincoln?
The short answer to the all-important first question is, it’s not.
To blame for this confusion is an enormous and rather misleading sign on Main Street in Newcastle as motorists enter town from Route 1, and another on Bristol Road in Bristol as commuters head north toward town.
The signs say “Route 129” will be closed from 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 24 to 6 a.m., Tuesday, April 26.
It’s wrong. Well, sort of.
What’s going to happen is this:
As you’re going north on Bristol Road (from Bristol or South Bristol) and you pass the entrance to the Miles Campus, go up the hill, and come down the other side, you come to a dip in the road before you go up another hill and come to the stoplight.
At this dip in the road, there is a body of water (or mud flats at low tide) to your left. Across the water, you can see the hospital.
This body of water is Day’s Cove.
The state needs to replace the culvert under Bristol Road that prevents Day’s Cove from flooding the road every day at high tide.
To replace a culvert under a road necessitates digging a big hole across the road, which makes it undesirable to drive a vehicle through this area while the work takes place.
The confusion comes in because the Maine Department of Transportation is referring to the road as Route 129. Locals know the road as Bristol Road.
Technically, we suppose, Bristol Road is Route 129 until 129 splits off at Hanley’s Market and goes all the way to the tip of Rutherford Island in South Bristol. Then Bristol Road is Route 130.
Locals, however, likely think of 129 as only the road from Hanley’s to the island – probably because it’s the only place where people who live on the road have an address of “State Route 129.” On Bristol Road, the addresses are – wait for it – Bristol Road, in both Bristol and Damariscotta.
In conclusion, no, South Bristol high school students, you will not receive an extra vacation day. And no, South Bristol commuters, you won’t either. And none of you will have to travel by boat or seaplane.
Just drive to town like you normally would, but take a right at School Street in Damariscotta.
