WEST BATH

Weather pemitting, State Road at the Bath roundabout will be paved today and the roundabout reopened before the weekend, state transportation officials said.

The work began Oct. 7, when an old 4-foot-square granite block culvert was removed and replaced with a 5-foot-by-10-foot precast concrete structure with header walls to alleviate flooding in the area.

The plan called for the roadway to be closed for at least two weeks, to Oct. 21, and possibly as long as four weeks, to Nov. 4.

Six weeks later, the structure is not yet completed.

Located at the West Bath exit to the roundabout at the end of Congress Avenue in Bath, the work made access to several local businesses all but impossible.

Many of those businesses were seasonal, such as the Witch Spring Hill Ice Cream stand and the Swango Farm Stand but others, including Plant’s Seafood and several small automotive repair shops, said they were adversely affected by the closure.

In addition to traffic closure, there was no pedestrian access across the culvert, either.

A detour using Congress Avenue, U.S. Route 1 and New Meadows Road is still in place.

In case of weather problems, according to Dennis Lovely of Maine Department of Transportation, the roundabout will be open by Thanksgiving.