2019 State Route 3/198 - Highway Rehabilitation Project

• Work has started on the State Route 3/198 roadway rehabilitation project. The project location is in Northeast Harbor between the Butler Road and where last year’s roadway rehabilitation project ended just northerly of Sargeant Drive. This work is being funded on a %50 - %50 cost share basis between the town and the Maine DOT.

• The engineer of record for the project is G.F. Johnston & Associates of Southwest Harbor. The general contractor is R.F. Jordan & Sons, Inc. of Ellsworth. Both companies are excellent to work with and are very experienced with projects like ours.

• The start of the work has not been smooth, primarily due to traffic control. The project specifications require traffic control that is “effective”. The contractor was given permission to try to use traffic signals that, if they were not effective, would be replaced by flaggers. The traffic signals were not effective and will be replaced by flaggers on June 26, 2019.

• Flaggers have the advantage of being able to move with the work zone, allowing a shorter work zone hence shorter wait time while traffic is stopped. They also have the advantage of being able to see what there is for traffic and adjust accordingly unlike the traffic signals which have wait times programmed into them. No matter how much or how little traffic there is, traffic signals cause traffic stoppages for the same duration of time. Traffic signals tend to work best for short projects similar to the bridge work done near the Tremont Consolidated School on Route 102/Tremont Road in Tremont.

• The work is being done at this time of the year to be able to complete it and get the road paved before the DOT deadline for placing pavement in November. The date of final completion for the project is November 15, 2019.

• The project got a late start as compared to last year’s project due to cost issues. The one construction bid received was in the amount of $1,172,020 or, $312,000 over budget. A second bid arrived 30 minutes past the deadline for acceptance of bids. The late bidder told us their bid was much more than $318,000 over our budget. In discussion with DOT and other engineering firms in the state, we were told that they are seeing bids coming in over 30% above their estimated budget.

• Our engineer worked with the contractor and DOT to get our project down to a budget we could handle, that being $500,000 per each of the town and the DOT for a total of $1 million, the same as last year. Modifications to the design that did not adversely affect the end result of the project and, reducing the overall project length by 810-feet, enabled the costs to be reduced to within our budget and allowed the work to begin.

• DOT has reduced the scope of some of their projects for this year, including paving projects, due to costs. When they are willing to provide the type of funding for a project like the one we are doing with them on Route 198, you want to take advantage of it. Even though it is a state road, our residents and visitors drive it and a safer road is better for all.

• When I asked them years ago about any work they might have planned for Route 198, DOT told me that they did not plan any major improvements for the roadway in their foreseeable. We could expect to see very thin layers of pavement aka “skinny mix”, put down on the road over existing cracks and holes, heaves and no shoulder work at all. As they described it to me, the “skinny mix” is put down to “hold the pieces together until” they could do something more substantive.

• Work Schedule: Monday to Friday; 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The date of final completion for the project is November 15, 2019. No work will be done on July 4 or 5, 2019.

Tony Smith, Public Works Director

276-5743