WINSLOW — Construction on Clinton Avenue is set to start in early July and a variety of roadwork will continue over the next two to three years, town officials said Thursday after the Town Council OK’d a $2 million bond at its May 8 meeting.

The work is part of an effort to catch up on much needed maintenance on Winslow’s roads, Town Manager Michael Heavener said in an interview Thursday. The town is funding most of the work through state partnerships and the $2 million bond, which it plans to pay off in 10 years.

The state has determined that traffic turning from the Augusta Road into the Winslow Industrial Park warrants a left-hand turning lane, a project the town of Winslow will undertake next spring or summer after working on other areas in town, starting first with construction on Clinton Avenue. Staff file photo by Evan Belanger

The Town Council voted to approve the bond at its last meeting on May 8. It will pay $227,000 each year on the 10-year agreement.

In the past, the town would set aside $400,000 for roadwork in its budget. However, over the past four years, it’s only put about half as much into the maintenance budget as it’s worked to keep taxes down, support the schools and manage a decline in state revenue sharing, Heavener said.

The loss amounted to more than $900,000 of work, “which is a lot of paving,” said Paul Fongemie, director of Public Works.

Fongemie said he gets complaints about the roads, particularly those in the more rural areas of town.

While he doesn’t have specific plans yet because he was waiting for the bonds to be approved, Fongemie said in an interview Thursday the town will work on Joe Avenue and Augusta Avenue, the drainage problems in the area of the Sunset Heights development, and the “back roads” in the more rural part of town. He also hopes to pave Wyman Bog Road, which is the last dirt road in Winslow, he said.

The variety of road and drainage improvements will take between two and three years to complete, he said.

The Clinton Avenue project is a municipal partnership with the state Department of Transportation. The state will pay for half of the work estimated at $500,000. Winslow included $250,000 in its budget for this year to cover the other half.

The town first applied to the state for the project in 2015 and has now put it out to bid for contractors. The project aims to fix 0.12 miles of road stretching from the bottom of the hill on Clinton Avenue to Monument Street, Fongemie said. The contractor will cut the top of the hill down slightly to improve sight-distance, though not as much as the town had originally hoped due to the presence of utilities in the ground.

The town is also going to put in new sidewalks, storm drainage and curbing in the area. The work will take an estimated 90 days to complete, and the area may be closed off to traffic at times, Fongemie said.

“It’s better to have a couple of days with no through traffic and get it done two to three weeks early,” he said.

The town also hopes to partner with the state for work on Benton Avenue, stretching from the intersection with Roderick Road to the town line. The earliest that work would start is 2019, Fongemie said, because of a delay at the state level.

Winslow is also planning to add a turning lane on Augusta Road so that cars can turn left into the Winslow Industrial Park, which houses Alcom, which creates specialized aluminum trailers, and Wunderlich-Malec, which makes portable substations for power utilities.

The state studied the traffic and found that the number of cars going in and out of the park warranted a left-hand turning lane, Heavener said, which will make the area safer and accommodate any future growth of the companies.

The town is waiting to begin this project until next spring or summer as it works on other areas of town this year, Heavener said.

Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239

mstamour@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @madelinestamour

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