MADAWASKA, Maine — Five aging railway bridges in Aroostook County would get much-needed repairs if $9.6 million in congressionally directed spending is approved by Congress.
The bridges are located in the Madawaska subdivision of the Maine Northern Railway. The Madawaska subdivision spans 151 miles, starting from the Millinocket and Grindstone township line continuing north to the Frenchville and Madawaska town line.
Two bridges are in Frenchville, and the others are in Fort Kent, Nashville Plantation and Dyer Brook, according to Damian Veilleux, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Transportation.
Maine DOT spokesperson Paul Merrill said most of the Aroostook bridges are more than 80 years old and need to be fixed as soon as possible. He said the bridges see between two and four trains daily, including some local in-state trains and others traveling to Canada.
“All but one of these [bridges] are complete replacements; the other one is a rehabilitation,” Merrill said. “If these projects aren’t done soon, rail car weights and train speeds could be restricted on the rail line.”
He said the bridges are relatively short and that each is less than 30 feet long.
The money for repairs is part of $52 million in Maine DOT funding that was advanced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in a federal appropriations bill that still awaits passage by the full U.S. House and Senate.
The money would cover roughly 80 percent of the repair costs. The remainder will be covered by a state and private match.
The five spans are among 13 rail bridges that will be rehabilitated in Maine, according to MaineDOT’s three-year work plan, published earlier this year,. Twelve of these bridges are within the Northern Maine Rail Network and one is over the New Meadows River in West Bath. The entire three-year work plan for statewide capital freight rail projects is $205 million, with $16 million of this going toward rail bridge rehabilitation.
The Aroostook bridges are currently being designed. Merrill said the work won’t go out to bid until several months after an award and finalization of a grant agreement with the Federal Railroad Administration.
Merrill said the exact timeline for this work depends on when the funding becomes available. The work itself is expected to take roughly two years.
The Maine Northern Railway is one of three short line railroads under NBM Railways, which is based in Saint John, New Brunswick. The other two railways are the NB Southern Railway and the Eastern Maine Railway.
NBM Railways is one of about 10 companies within the transportation and logistics division of J.D. Irving.
Officials from NBM Railways were not immediately available for comment.
