Camden and Rockport select boards have both officially lent support for a Route 1sidewalk project that has been in the planning stages since 2012, an with a municipal/state agreement now in hand, construction is targeted within the next few years.

The sidewalk project entails extending Camden’s Route 1 sidewalk from where it ends near Quarry Hill to the Loyal Biscuit, a retail business over the Rockport town line, and just past the Country Inn.

The 1,950-foot-long sidewalk extension is to stretch from Quarry Hill Road, in Camden, and continue along Route 1 to the Loyal Biscuit at 56 Commercial St. (Route 1). The project will include crossing improvements to the entrance of the Hannaford Shopping Plaza. The stretch of sidewalk will comprise 970 linear feet in Camden and 980 linear feet in Rockport. 

In 2012, the two towns obtained a $133,600 federal grant for the project. (Read the original grant application here)

Since 2012, however, the cost of the project has increased to $596,000, with the inclusion of a new traffic signal and crossing improvements.

The Maine DOT has pledged to pay 80 percent of that cost, leaving the remainder — $119,200 — to be split between Camden and Rockport. The proposed cost share has Camden paying $74,142 and Rockport $45,058.

In 2012, the original grant application to the DOT cited pedestrians attempting to walk alongside the busy Route 1 to Maritime Farms from downtown Camden, dragging their luggage to and from the Concord Coach Line bus stop.

Entities endorsing the grant application included Hannaford, Maine Media Workshops, Camden Hospital for Animals, Pen Bay Health Care, and Concord Coach Lines.

The grant requires a local match of 20 percent, totaling $33,407, which had been approved by Camden's and Rockport's select boards when the grant application was submitted last August.

The Maine Department of Transportation has classified the project under its Multimodal Program, which, in 2016-2017, set aside $9 million for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, with matching funds of more than $2 million from towns and cities. Projects and initiatives include sidewalk construction, bicycle/pedestrian shared facilities, crossing improvements, downtown improvements, bicycle/pedestrian safety improvements, and Safe Routes to School projects. 

But the 2013 DOT grant was delayed, given a federal sequester. 

In 2016, the DOT contacted Camden to renew the Route 1 project, and over the last week, both Camden and Rockport select boards approved moving forward with it.

Next steps will entail circulating a request for proposals for engineering and design. That schedule will be determined by the funding, and when the grant money arrives.

According to the DOT documents, preliminary engineering will cost $66,000; Right of Way research, $5,000; construction, $465,000; and construction engineering, $60,000.

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