By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — The closure of the Crockett Bridge has been delayed by one week, but the reopening of the new bridge is still slated for mid-October.

As indicated by the digital signs along the Naples Causeway, the Crockett Bridge — located off Route 114 — will be closed to through traffic starting on Monday morning. The closure will be in effect at 6 a.m.

Additionally, the bridge will be closed to boating traffic from Monday through Wednesday.

The reason for the closure delay is that the precast sections of the bridge were not ready at the beginning of last week, according to the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) Project Resident Engineer Craig Hurd.

“They were still casting them,” he said.

“There was a delay in the precast suppliers. (The) contractor wanted to make sure all the precast units were going to be ready when they needed them so to keep the closure at a minimum,” Hurd said.

The abutments and the approach slabs are being supplied by Precast Concrete Products of Maine, based in Topsham, he said.

The company Blakeslee Prestress Inc., out of Branford, Conn., will be doing the precast concrete beams, he said.

For this bridge project, concrete will be placed on site for “the deck and the inpost, the curbs, and little things,” Hurd said.

The bridge replacement project is estimated to cost $1.4 million.

T-Buck Construction, based in Turner, is the company that was awarded the MDOT contract. Most recently, T-Buck was hired to replace the Pleasant Lake-Parker Pond Dam in Casco.

The bridge demolition is set to take place when the bridge closes on Monday; and that demolition period should last about three days, Hurd said.

Despite the bridge closure delay, the new bridge will still be open to traffic on Oct. 15 or Oct. 16, Hurd said. To accomplish this, crews will be working around the clock, which was part of the original plan.

The completion date for the entire project is Nov. 8, Hurd said.