CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE
WEEKLY MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor MacLean, Councilors and Department Heads
FROM: Jeffrey Kobrock, City Manager
DATE: November 26, 2008
RE: Weekly Memo
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Next Week's City Meetings are available on our Calendar
New Mills Bridge
A preconstruction meeting was held on Tuesday to discuss the replacement of the New Mills Bridge. CPM Constructors of Freeport has been awarded the contract for construction of a temporary bridge and removal of the existing bridge. This is an extremely quick turnaround - it was hardly a monthly ago that a routine inspection caused the immediate posting of the bridge.
Although virtually all details concerning this project are subject to change, and in fact likely to change due to the emergency nature of the project, current projected milestones are:
Temporary bridges (one for each travel lane) in place by end of December.
Temporary pedestrian bridge in place shortly thereafter.
Removal of existing bridge January – March 2009.
Begin construction of new bridge March 2009.
End construction of new bridge December 2009.
The temporary bridges will be placed on the old abutments just upstream of the current bridge. A pedestrian bridge will placed immediately adjacent to the vehicular bridge. The temporary bridges will “land” on West Street. For the duration of the project there will be a detour that utilizes about the first 100 feet of West Street. MDOT will place signage that restricts both West Street and Cherry Street to local traffic only to avoid shortcuts to Rt. 201 made slightly more attractive by the detour.
The turn onto the bridge from West Street (and vice versa) will be very tight. Although the bridges will not have any weight restrictions, the turning radius will not accommodate tractor trailers. For the duration of the project lengthy vehicles will be detoured around the bridges, just as anything over 10 tons is now detoured. However, with no weight restrictions, much of the traffic currently detoured will be allowed to cross, including school buses.
Although MDOT is focused upon the practical aspects of an emergency project of this scale, we have made several aesthetic suggestions that encompass the entire project area. This is an important gateway to the City and was given very significant attention during the development of the Cobbossee Corridor Master Plan. Brian Kent, Kent Associates has partnered with Jason to propose some modest improvements from the Master Plan to the current conceptual design. Our
proposals to MDOT are included in the packet.
Ordinance Review Committee Agenda 12/02/08
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