Southwest Harbor's Main Street Project Extended Again
Goal is to finish one-way work later this month
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SOUTHWEST HARBOR—The town’s select board, Tuesday night, approved R.F. Jordan & Son’s request to extend its time to finish the Main Street Road project.
“We would like to get this project done this season and we understand how disruptive the project is for the community. All projects, construction projects, are extremely disruptive. I think it's coming together, starting to look nice,” said Annalise Hafford from Olver Associates. “It’s been a tough project with the starts and the stops.”
After years of planning work and construction and now some weather setbacks, ledge, and state communication delays, Southwest Harbor’s long-running Main Street construction project is nearing completion.
“We want this project done. This project has been lingering on from well before me,” Town Manager Karen Reddersen said in May. “We want this done and they are very very close.”
The work will be extended to include one-way alternating traffic through Friday, June 20, 2025, with liquidated damages to begin June 21 if the traffic continues one way.
Work on Main Street has been ongoing since 2022. Last year, R.F. Jordan & Sons replaced water lines, installed storm-water catch basins, sidewalks, and drainage systems. Before that trees were cleared and erosion systems installed.
R.F. Jordan & Sons installed detectable warning plates during the first week of June as well as the top layer of stone for the stone trench. Eaton Paving & Excavation finished paving all the utility trenches.
This week, the contractor is expected to finish raising all structures and Northeast Paving will mill and shim the road to prepare it for the overlay.
“There's been a lot of work that's taken place in the last month, and I think it would be great to get this project completed this year,” Hafford said.
It will continue to be one-way traffic during the work.
“I know I'm most deeply affected than anyone else in town more than likely. I lose about $10,000 $15,000 every week that you're in front of me, okay?” said Debby Dubois of the Upper Deck. “And I've been very patient, and I've dealt with it, but I also see what's going on in front of me, and it is definitely not lightning work.”
Her statements were echoed by another man attending.
“You keep making these promises like you’re gonna be gone and you keep coming back,” she said. “This is killing me.”
She said she needed the town to stand up for her the way she stands up for the town.
“It would make absolutely no sense to not get this project done at this point,” Hafford said. “There’s no way they’re going to get it done by this Friday correctly.”
Hafford added that there are some issues with the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) and receiving approval, which she said was hard to get a response to.
“That’s probably the biggest wrinkle in this year’s work,” Hafford said.
The project’s original contract that DOT issued had an arbitrary time of completion of June 1, and that was extended to June 13 by the town’s select board at its last meeting. The number of days to do the work ran out in May, but that didn’t include the overlay work, which was added on.
Board member Natasha Johnson said she was disappointed that the board didn’t previously know about the number of days to do the work stipulation.
“I‘ve never been treated this way by MaineDot,” said Devon White, project manager for RF Jordan. “I've worked in every corner of Maine from Machias, to Fort Kent to Jackman, and I've never been treated like this with the MaineDOT, the way they've treated the town.”
By June 20, the one-way traffic will be done, White said. There will still be gravel, debris, and a fence that needs to be fixed.
There is still painting work and work with sidewalk signs and crosswalks.
If the board hadn’t extended the timeline, the road wouldn’t have been in the best shape to sustain summer traffic and the paving prices won’t hold, Hafford said. “It would be really bad not to get this done at this point.”
Most, if not all, the equipment will be gone in two weeks, White said.
Johnson said that since the town authorized the contractor expanded hours, she wished they’d been used more.
“It angers me that we’re in this position, but we can’t live with that road in that condition for another summer,” select board member Dan Norwood said. He was opposed to the motion.
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