STANDISH – For two decades, the town of Standish has sought to fix the five-way intersection, prone to congestion, where Oak Hill Road merges with Route 25 and intersects Route 35.

Now, following a failed 2013 bond issue meant to pay for the project, the town has finally commenced construction on a new cross-connector road designed to alleviate the traffic problems.

In early April, Gorham-based Shaw Brothers Construction began building the new road, which connects Oak Hill Road and Route 25 just west of the current intersection. The easternmost stretch of Oak Hill Road, a few hundred yards in length, will become Oak Hill Ext., a one-way street accessible only to westbound vehicles. The new cross-connector road, which runs past Standish House of Pizza, will become part of Oak Hill Road.

According to Town Manager Gordon Billington, the town has long sought to fix the intersection.

“The project has been identified for a great many years by the town of Standish as a much-needed improvement,” Billington said. “You’ll see it in earlier comprehensive plans dating back at least 20 years.”

Momentum for the intersection improvements began to build after Gray-based Gorrill-Palmer Engineering identified the project in a Route 25 study with the town’s Roadway Planning Committee in the mid-2000s, Billington said.

In 2013, town voters rejected a $500,000 bond that would have funded the improvements. Following the defeat, the town successfully applied for $500,000 in state-administered Municipal Partnership Initiative funds to complete the project. The town, using funds from a previous bond issue, has spent about $477,000 purchasing, demolishing and relocating two nearby structures in order to build the cross-connector road, according to Billington.

“We were going to pay 100 percent out of taxpayer funding, so I think this is much better, certainly, having the state pay for the intersection improvements,” he said. “It is a failed intersection, so that’s high on DOT’s priority to address that.”

The town has also acquired construction easements from abutters Paul Thompson and the Standish House of Pizza.

“We’re doing a land swap with the House of Pizza,” Billington said. “We’re providing them with a new entrance on this cross-connector road and some increased parking for them.”

In order to build the cross-connector road, the town purchased a daycare center on 33 Ossipee Trail West for $225,000 and a house on 20 Oak Hill Road for $220,000. Although both buildings were in use, Billington said, the owners were “willing sellers.”

Gorham-based engineering firm BH2M is conducting construction oversight on the project, Billington said. It is not clear when construction will conclude, he said.

Billington said that the goal is to alleviate traffic problems at the intersection, also known as Standish Corner.

“There will be no vehicles entering Route 25 from the existing Oak Hill Road,” he said. “That’s a very congested five-way intersection there.”

Billington said the new Oak Hill Road intersection will not have a traffic light.

Gene Campbell, the owner of Campbell Computer Services on Route 25, said he thinks the project is a “good idea.”

“You try to get out of that corner right now, it’s a nightmare,” Campbell said. “I’m surprised there haven’t been more accidents there.”

But Campbell said it’s too early to tell if the new road will improve the situation.

“Time will tell when they get it done, and how the traffic flows and stuff,” he said. “We’ll see if it relieves the congestion at the corner.”

With Standish Congregational Church in the background, Shaw Brothers Construction recently began building a new cross-connector road between Oak Hill Road and Route 25 in Standish. The new road, which intersects Route 25 further west on Route 25, is expected to improve the congested Standish Corner intersection.