Construction on phase 2 of the Presque Isle Bypass — a $78 million project designed to route traffic around downtown Presque Isle — will start next week, the Maine Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
The project’s contractor, Orono-based Sargent Corporation, will start clearing trees Monday where the roadway will connect with U.S. Route 1 in Westfield, about a half-mile south of Presque Isle city limits.
Aided by an unnamed subcontractor, that work will continue through April, department officials said.
The start of construction comes more than six years after the DOT had initially anticipated breaking ground on the 6.17-mile project. When complete, the road will connect with the 1.7-mile first phase of the bypass, which opened in 2019.
Phase 2 will require the construction of four bridges, five large-box culverts, and a new interchange to connect with phase 1. It’s expected to be completed by the fall of 2029.
The bypass was first proposed in Aroostook County Transportation Study — which began in 1999 and ended in 2013 — to improve traffic flow and increase safety by diverting heavy commercial truck traffic away from the downtown of The County’s largest city.
A potential third phase of the bypass, which would connect it back with Route 1 north of Presque Isle, is still up in the air. It would extend from the Fort Fairfield Road and require a bridge to be constructed to cross the Aroostook River. Only the first two phases have currently been funded.
“We will assess next steps once segment one is complete and we can evaluate its effectiveness,” Maine DOT Director of Public Information Andrew Gobeil told the Bangor Daily News in January.
