The closure of a major road through the center of the town of Penobscot starts Monday and is set to continue for a month.
It will allow crews to replace a culvert and raise a section of road on Route 175, known as Bayview Road, over Mill Creek near Hutchins Cove. Drivers will take a more than 20-mile detour to get from one side of Northern Bay to the other, adding about 30 minutes to a trip.
Traffic is re-routed north through neighboring Orland and south again, along either Rt. 166 or Rt. 15 to 199, depending on direction.
The project will let the tide move freely under the road, helping it withstand extreme weather while improving fish and wildlife passage, according to officials. The work also contributes to the town’s longrunning effort to restore its alewife populations, which led to the first commercial harvest in decades last year.
Workers will replace a failing granite culvert with a new, larger concrete structure. The project will also raise a portion of the road, which was flooded in historic January 2024 storms and temporarily closed.
The work is fully funded by more than a million dollars of state and federal grants, according to town officials, making it an example of a major infrastructure project small towns can’t fund alone.
Burn permits are also suspended locally for the month. Officials have coordinated plans for emergency services, school buses and waste disposal, according to the town.
