BRIDGE STAGED FOR DEMOLITION — The aging Crockett Bridge, which is located on Route 114, also known as Sebago Road, will be demolished next week. The road will be closed to traffic, starting at 6 a.m. Monday. (De Busk Photo)

By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

For those people who have a fondness for the bridge that crosses over the Muddy River, this weekend will be the last opportunity to drive over it or to boat under it.

Before the end of the upcoming work week, the Crockett Bridge will be gone.

Crews from T-Buck Construction will be demolishing the bridge, starting on Monday, according to the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) Resident Engineer Craig Hurd. As a result of the construction, Crockett Bridge will be closed to both boat and vehicular traffic from Monday through Wednesday, Hurd said.

Crockett Bridge is located on Route 114, also known as Sebago Road, in the Town of Naples.

Starting on Monday morning, the bridge will be closed to traffic, and traffic will not be able to pass through that section for about a month, according to Hurd. The exact time frame for the bridge replacement project is 26 days, Hurd said.

The MDOT project is estimated to cost $1.4 million, he said. Typically, the state saves between $200,000 and $300,000 by not using a temporary bridge during the construction phase, he said.

T-Buck Construction, out of Auburn, was awarded the job.

“The road closure will happen around 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., somewhere around there. They will start demoing it at 7 a.m. They will start by demolishing the deck,” Hurd said.

“They are talking two or three days, and they’ll have the bridge out by then,” he said. “We are going to demo the old bridge, build a brand new bridge and open it back up” in 26 days, Hurd said. That means that construction crews will be working around the clock, on holidays such as Columbus Day and on Sundays, he said.

“They’ve got two crews, working two 12-hour shifts. I’ve heard 6 to 6 is the shift,” he said. “They have some light towers in there for the night-time hours,” he said.

Hurd and the contractor have held a construction update meeting with the Naples Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak and with Naples Selectman Bob Caron II in recent weeks.

“We had a project meeting” so they are “in the loop. It is such a quick thing we will not have that many” meetings, Hurd said. According to the construction contract, the passage under the bridge will be closed to boaters for a total of 10 days, but some of the exact dates are unknown, he said.

“The bridge will be closed to waterway traffic on Sept. 19, 20 and 21. After that, it depends on where they are at,” he said. “It is a fluid situation.” Meanwhile, the contractor has been contacting the marinas to spread the word to boat owners, Hurd said.

For drivers, “detours are clearly marked,” he said. “It is the long way around, Route 107 in Sebago to Bridgton or Route 302 back around,” Hurd said.

The new bridge will have a length of 80 feet, and it will be at least 6 to 8 feet wider than the existing bridge.

“In the process, we will redo the approaches. So, it should be a better transition than it is now,” Hurd said.