MADAWASKA, Maine — The Madawaska-Edmundston International Bridge will remain closed an additional two days, the Maine Department of Transportation announced Monday.
The bridge originally planned to be closed to traffic from Tuesday through Friday last week and this Monday to accommodate work on the new bridge. It will now be closed to all traffic from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday because the work on the Canadian approach is taking longer than expected, Maine DOT spokesperson Paul Merrill said.
The new 1,800-foot bridge will diagonally connect the United States and Canada. It will replace the town’s existing bridge, which is more than a century old and has had a 5-ton weight limit since 2017. Large trucks that would normally cross in Madawaska have to go several miles out of the way and cross in towns such as Fort Kent and Van Buren.
The work on the new bridge includes building a retaining wall and drilling to confirm what is below the road. Crews are also working on travel lanes on the Canadian approach near the Canadian customs building.
The new bridge project is estimated to cost $97 million. Officials expect to see traffic on the bridge by the end of the year.
