AUGUSTA — State transportation officials will hold a public meeting on Monday to get input on a proposed project that would reconfigure part of Civic Center Drive around a Maine National Guard headquarters expected to be completed in 2017.
Officials are hoping the changes also make the traffic flow coming off Interstate 95 safer.
The traffic changes would include a traffic light at the intersection of Civic Center Drive with Darin Drive, a new entrance to the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery at that intersection and a change to a nearby Interstate 95 off-ramp. The estimated cost for the traffic work is $950,000, said Brian Keezer, a project manager for the Maine Department of Transportation.
The work would help accommodate traffic flowing into the Guard’s planned $32 million headquarters to be built on 43 undeveloped acres between the cemetery and the road that will be accessed by the new intersection. The interchange sending drivers coming off the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 north toward Belgrade would be shortened as part of the project, according to Keezer.
He said cars often pull into traffic at high speeds there, and the change “is going to force you to slow way down.”
“The goal is to try and make it safer for everyone,” he said.
The massive two-story building would house the Guard’s administrative offices, which are now at Camp Keyes near the Augusta State Airport. Roughly 200 employees are expected to work there, and while some functions will remain at Camp Keyes, some office buildings will be demolished in the move to north Augusta.
The state is seeking bids for the project, and a spokesman has said the Guard intends to award winning bids in June ahead of a summer groundbreaking. Construction is expected to take two years. The funding was included in the federal defense budget passed in December.
Representatives of the Maine Department of Transportation will present their plan and take comments at a meeting set for 6 p.m. Monday at Augusta City Center.
Michael Shepherd — 370-7652
Twitter: @mikeshepherdme
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