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07/09/2008
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Staff photo by Joe Phelanfrom the Kennebec Journal
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COLLEGE ROUNDUP: Colby women win season opener at home tournament
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from the Morning Sentinel
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Kennebec County Superior Court
POLICE
COLLEGE HOCKEY: Maine rallies but falls short against Boston College
COLLEGE ROUNDUP: Colby women win season opener at home tournament
All of today's:
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from the Morning Sentinel
And it appears they will continue to do so, starting as early as 4:30 a.m., according to state Transportation Commissioner David Cole.
Because they can.
And they must, Cole said, in order to finish the project on time.
Further, operating the pit "at potentially all hours" is an option, too, Cole said.
The project calls for 180,000 tons of pavement to be laid in about 15 weeks -- about 65 percent of it coming from Summerhaven.
City Manager William Bridgeo said residents have complained about the increased truck traffic to and from Pike's large pit and asphalt plant off Sanford Road.
The complaints especially target the hours the trucks have been coming: They are beyond the hours allowed in a city ordinance that bans truck traffic in the area between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
A steady flow of trucks are coming off the interstate, onto Route 27, Summerhaven Road and Sanford Road, as well as taking other routes to the pit, filling up with fresh asphalt and heading back to the job site on the southbound lanes of I-295 between Gardiner and Topsham.
Bridgeo said the state is essentially invoking its right to override local ordinances, as completing the project is in the public interest.
"The state has exercised their right to override local ordinance as to the hours of operation," Bridgeo said.
"It's onerous. It's burdensome. But we have very limited opportunity to influence it," Bridgeo said. "We've done what we can."
Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, confirmed the state has invoked its right to override local law -- for the greater public good.
Cole, in a letter to the city, said he understood there had been consideration, in Augusta, of issuing traffic citations to contractors working on the project for violating the time limits in the city's ordinance.
"Although we empathize with the residents in the area and wish that more explicit advance notice had been provided, we are hopeful this letter will explain why the projects need to be done as planned and why it would not be appropriate to cite our contractors," Cole said in his letter to the city.
"This project compressed two or three years worth of work with partial lane closures into a portion of a single season with a complete southbound closure," Cole's letter continues. "This was designed to forward the public interest of having this massive and important interstate project done safer, quicker, cheaper and better. As a state project, the public interest must prevail, though everyone understands and is trying to minimize the impacts to the Summerhaven area residents."
Cole said Pike Industries, the general contractor on the project, plans to bring trucks into the pit starting at 4:30 a.m. and work to around 9 p.m.
He noted the pits in the area have been in existence for more than 50 years.
"We wish there were other options, but they simply do not exist at this time," Cole said. "We need the mix from this plant, and need to haul for longer hours than what the city ordinance allows to get this state work done in the best interest of the public."
Latti noted the increased pace of the project should result in Summerhaven area residents being disrupted for a shorter period of time than if the project had been planned on a more conventional schedule.
Bridgeo noted Pike's and other trucks working on the project still have to adhere to weight limits and speed limits.
"Chief (Wayne) McCamish is going to have extra patrols out there for that purpose," Bridgeo said.
Latti said the project appears to be on schedule to finish by the end of August.
There are substantial financial rewards for the contractor to finish early, he noted.
On Tuesday morning, a steady flow of dump trucks came and went from the Pike pit, which is in an area where other contractors also have sand and gravel pits.
Over an observed five minutes, seven trucks left the pit and two entered. All appeared to be traveling slowly and deliberately on the road, which turns from pavement to dirt shortly before the pit entrance.
Keith Edwards -- 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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