By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) has issued another timeline for the construction of a new Interstate-295N on-ramp at Exit 3 and construction is expected to begin this fall.
    The project, one of six included in the MDOT’s Maine Mall Area Road Work plan, will widen Broadway and Westbrook Street and create an east bound lane on Westbrook that will allow motorists right-and turn access to a new Interstate-295 on ramp.
    Last Friday, MDOT Project Manager Shawn Smith said the $5.2 million project is fully funded under the previous biannual funding through a combination of federal, state, local and developer money from the construction of the U.S. Post Office Distribution Center in Scarborough.    
    Smith said the advertisements for requests for bids are expected to go out in either late July or early August and if all goes well construction would begin the second week of Sept.
    He said the projected completion date for the entire project is early summer 2009. The bulk of the construction will take place during the 2008 construction season with final touches including loam, seeding and a final surface layer of paving scheduled for spring 2009.
    The first phase of the project, consolidating the clay, was started two years ago. Smith said “the huge piles of dirt out there” are helping to remove the water from the clay, which prevents later settlement.
    Once construction begins, Smith said there would be some night work while crews set the steel and work on the bridge that will span Westbrook Street.
    “We don’t want to have anybody working over live traffic,” he said. He said there would also be periodic night work when crews move on to the intersection of Westbrook and Broadway.
    With the recent approval of the $112 million transportation bond from Tuesday’s referendum, MDOT Project Manager Ernie Martin said there is a potential for as many as four to six projects-previously postponed due to lack of funding-to be advertised per week.
    Included in MDOT’s 2008-2009 Work Plan are two highway-widening projects between Exit 3 and Exit 4.
    In preliminary planning numbers, Martin said the cost to create an auxiliary northbound lane is roughly $3 million and construction of a southbound auxiliary lane would be roughly $1.7 million.
    “In the upcoming months as we proceed with preliminary designs, we will have meetings with all of the parties involved,” Martin said. Construction would likely start in 2009, but in the coming months he said MDOT and stakeholders will look at whether putting both projects out at the same time has merit.
    If the projects are bid out separately, he said the widening of the southbound lane would likely go out first. 
    Martin said the I-295 corridor project is a “federal earmarked project,” but included in the funding is a 20 percent state match, which he said is typical of most projects.
    Smith asks all motorists to be aware of changing traffic patterns once construction gets underway
    “We want to let everybody know, once we do start construction, be aware of daily traffic control changes,” he said.
    Each day may be slightly different and he encouraged people to visit MDOT’s Web site, which provides information about the latest project schedules.