Commuters traveling U.S. Route 202 between Lewiston and Winthrop may want to allow some extra time in the coming weeks. The Maine Department of Transportation has scheduled a pair of projects for the road that will carry through much of the summer.
The first of them, which involves repaving from Winthrop to just east of the Leeds/Monmouth town line, is set to begin Monday morning, said Shawn Smith, senior project manager for the state transportation department. That project is due to be completed by the end of June, in time for crews to begin creating center-line rumble strips from Winthrop to Lewiston.
In addition to new pavement, the contract calls for shoulder work, re-ditching and cleaning up sand left over from the winter.
Smith said all the work will be completed during daylight hours. Drivers who use the road, which is a main thoroughfare between Lewiston and Augusta, probably will experience delays during the morning and evening commutes. Crews will try to keep lane closures short.
“It will probably delay a little bit during those peak commuting times,” Smith said. “There’s enough of a project area that we can keep the traffic moving and be productive.”
The state has in recent years repaved U.S. Route 202 from Edison Drive in Augusta to Charlie’s Chevrolet in Winthrop, but time and traffic have taken a toll on the road from Charlie’s into Lewiston. That section of road is rife with potholes and bumps.
“This winter didn’t help us out,” Smith said. “It’s been pretty hard on everything.”
The project must be completed by June 22.
The same contract calls for repaving, shoulder and ditch work along Route 133 from Winthrop to the fire station in Wayne, just east of the village. That work will begin later in May or early June.
“We’ll have that done by the middle of August,” Smith said.
The second phase of the U.S. Route 202 work will begin later this year when crews begin adding rumble strips from Winthrop to Lewiston. That work could begin as early as mid-July, Smith said.
The state installed centerline and white-line rumble strips over about a 5-mile section of road in Winthrop between Annabessacook Road in the west and Welches Point Road in the east. The plan for this summer is to resume installing the strips from Annabessacook Road and continue into Lewiston, Smith said.
The strips, which cause a loud noise and vibration designed to alert inattentive drivers, are being added to the section of road where the most accidents have occurred. U.S. 202, particularly the section in Monmouth, has been the site of many serious crashes. There were 28 head-on or near-head-on crashes between 2009 and 2013 on U.S. 202, according to state figures. Those crashes resulted in 28 serious injuries.
Smith said the rumble strip project should take less than a week.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
ccrosby@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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