BATH

Traffic on Route 1 in Bath will continue to be affected by Maine Department of Transportation work.

For the next few weeks, the ramp from High Street onto Route 1 will be closed as the department completes work that began last year.

“Last year we realigned the ramp, so there’s a longer merge,” said Maine DOT Engineer Glenn Philbrook, “and we added sidewalks both at the end of the viaduct project, from High Street to Burger King.

“Because the project ran into the colder months, we were only able to get down the base layers for all the pavement,” he added. “In the next two or three weeks, we’re going to be finishing the surface paving and installing lights and crosswalk features.”

That project is expected to be finished by June 8-9, Philbrook said, though workers have until June 15 to be completed.

“We’re hoping to have the ramp back open by the end of next week,” he said. “Worst case scenario is that it will be closed for three weeks.”

That project is estimated to cost $566,000.

While one spot is closing, another is opening — albeit with some temporary lane closures.

The department has been replating the Route 1 overpass on Congress Street, as well as adding sidewalks on the bridge and leading up to it. Paving was completed earlier this week and the bridge was opened to traffic going both ways. There will be temporary lane closures, said Philbrook, but people will be able to go in both directions.

“That project is in two phases: One phase is the bridge, which added a sidewalk and sidewalk on the bridge approaches,” said Philbrook, “and then the other phase is connecting that sidewalk from the bridge project all the way over Walgreens and from the bridge project all the way over to the entrance of the Shaw’s shopping mall.”

The new sidewalk will allow safe foot traffic to cross over Route 1. Prior to that, pedestrians would have to walk all the way over to High Street in order to get to the other side.

That project is expected to cost $1.78 million. The deck replacement part of the project is slated to be completed by June 29, with the sidewalk portion to be completed by August 24.

nstrout@timesrecord.com