Major Road Construction Planned for 2021 and Beyond

At the February 2 City Council meeting, Sanford Public Works Director Matt Hill gave a presentation on upcoming Maine Department of Transportation plans for our community, including several major construction projects, totaling many miles of roadway, planned for this year.

Four of our major arterials will have resurfacing work done this year:

• Route 202 from the urban compact line east of Sanford Medical Center to the Alfred town line
• Route 109 from just beyond the roundabout in South Sanford, to the Wells line
• The other end of Route 202, from the Lebanon line to the urban compact line (about where the Great Works River crosses)
• Route 4 from the roundabout to the North Berwick line

Mount Hope Road will also undergo full reconstruction this year.

Smaller MDOT projects for 2021 include the replacement of a large culvert on Lebanon Road, which has been a chronic maintenance issue, and resurfacing Goodwin’s Bridge Road.

The Westside Village project, which will reconstruct Shaw Street, Prescott Street, and portions of Kimball Street and Twombley Road is planned for this summer. The final public hearing on the project will be held (virtually) on Thursday, February 11. Links to more information about the projects are here. This is a city of Sanford Capital Improvement Plan project, not a Maine DOT project.

In addition to all of these projects, the Route 4/School St. intersection will have preliminary engineering work done by MDOT to address safety issues. The Powers Bridge, just south of that intersection will also be reengineered, as it is too narrow.

Some large projects are also in the works for the next few years.

• Sections of River Street, Riverside Avenue and William Oscar Emery Drive are planned for reconstruction in 2022 or 2023. This project includes the creation of the Mousam Promenade, a 10-foot wide multi-modal (bike/pedestrian) pathway that will go all the way around Number One Pond.
• Route 202/Cottage Street will be completely reconstructed, with new turn lanes added at the River Street intersection. The project will extend up past the hospital to the urban compact line. Construction is scheduled to begin in April of 2023 and finish in September of 2024. There will be a final public hearing on the project in October of this year.
• Downtown Sanford, including portions of Main Street, School Street and Washington Street, is in the preliminary design phase now. That construction is expected to begin in 2024.

Mr. Hill told the City Council that the amount of federal and state funds Sanford has been allotted over the next three years for construction and engineering has increased from $12.9 million to $16.5 million. “This increase corresponds with our local drive to better our community, and our initiatives to cooperate, advocate, and invest in our City for the purposes of improving quality of life and economic revitalization,” he said.