WOOLWICH — The Maine Department of Transportation is replacing the Station 46 Bridge, which carries Route 1 over the Back River Creek Marsh and Rockland Branch of the Maine Central Railroad in Woolwich. The work area begins at the Taste of Maine Restaurant and extends north past the intersection of Route 1 and George Wright Road.

On-site work began in January. Right now, the contractor is building a temporary detour roadway to maintain one lane of traffic in each direction on Route 1 throughout construction. All work is expected to be finished by the end of 2024.

The reconstruction of Route 1 will raise the roadway by approximately five feet to address flooding concerns and sea level rise. This project also involves the construction of an 85-foot-long bridge (the Pleasant Cove Bridge) to replace two culverts near George Wright Road; this work is being done to protect Route 1 and to eventually help restore tidal flow to the marsh, according to MDOT, in a news release.

The existing Station 46 Bridge was built in 1933.

“It is an aging structure with areas of significant deterioration,” said MDOT. 

In 2019, the Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) on the bridge was nearly 19,000 vehicles.

"Route 1 is one of the most important roadways in our state,” said MaineDOT Project Manager Devan Eaton. “Maintaining safe and efficient passage through this area is extremely important to the economy. Our work to replace this bridge was designed to minimize traffic impacts. This project will also increase resiliency on a key piece of coastal infrastructure."

The contractor is Reed & Reed, Inc. of Woolwich. The construction contract amount is $33,547,697.

"We are pleased to build this key project right in our backyard. Reed & Reed widened and rehabilitated that same bridge in 1980, so we are happy to upgrade it once again,” said Jackson Parker, chairman and CEO of Woolwich-based Reed & Reed, Inc. “Some of our employees who worked on that 1980 project are still with us, and I'm sure they will be back on the project this time."

MaineDOT estimates that the total cost of this project (including engineering and construction) will be close to $40 million.

This project received a 2019 Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant award from the U.S. Department of Transportation in the amount of $25 million.