LITCHFIELD -- Motorists can breathe a sigh of relief. Work that would have closed the Route 197 over the Maine Turnpike in Litchfield will be postponed for a year.

State Department of Transportation officials Monday asked the Maine Turnpike Authority to delay the bridge rehabilitation work and leave the passage unfettered.

"We have learned that the DOT wants to use that route as a material-haul route for their I-295 project," said Dan Paradee, spokesman for the Maine Turnpike Authority, referring to the state's previous announcement it will shut down 22 miles of Interstate 295 southbound for road reconstruction this summer. Traffic is to be diverted to U.S. Route 201 and other secondary roads.

Paradee said the Maine Turnpike Authority will postpone its bridge project until next year.

Last week, Litchfield selectmen raised objections to the bridge closing.

Muriel Bonin, chairman of the selectmen, said she was concerned about the effect on public safety personnel trying to respond to emergencies while the bridge was closed.

The bridge work planned this summer in Litchfield would have forced a detour for motorists traveling on Route 197, the main artery connecting Litchfield to Richmond and Sabattus.

Walt McCarty, Litchfield deputy road commissioner, said Route 197 will be used to haul materials from Pike Industries plants to the interstate project.

"I'm glad that the bridge is not going to be closed this summer," McCarty said. "And I know we're going to have to go though the same rhetoric in April or May 2009."

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com