Brewer road projects to cause delays
Saturday, August 20, 2010 

Betton Street has been moved to align with Parker Street, and all of the sidewalks in the downtown area have been redone. The final step in the downtown improvement project will be to pave Center Street and a portion of North Main Street, City Engineer Frank Higgins said Friday.

“Monday we’re going to pave Center Street. That’s a one-day deal,” he said. “A week from Monday, Aug. 30, we’re going to pave North Main Street, between State Street and Wilson. That’s probably a one-day deal, maybe two.”

In addition to aligning Betton and Parker streets, which used to have the city’s highest crash rate, the traffic improvement project also includes moving a traffic signal at the bottom of steep Bridge Hill to the newly aligned intersection, and making Center Street one way with parking on both sides of the street.

A small section of Penobscot and Center streets, between the Penobscot Bridge and North Main Street, will be paved Monday.

Another road construction project, planned to widen Wilson Street between Green Point Road and Downeast Toyota, will begin this fall, Higgins said.

“The [Maine Department of Transportation] just opened bids on the Wilson Street widening,” he said. “That’s going to be started sometime in mid-September” and will add a center left-turn-only lane. “That’s a … project they’ll start this fall and … [will] finish it in the spring or summer of next year.”

The downtown project began in May and will be complete once the paving is done, Higgins said.
“In about two weeks we’ll be celebrating the completion of the downtown paving project,” he said. “It’s going to look good.”

A copyright article from the Bangor Daily News, Friday, August 20, 2010 by Nok-Noi Ricker.