Specifications include, but are not limited to: Additional river crossings in Skowhegan have been considered for years, most recently in November 2021 resulting in a Skowhegan Bridge Feasibility Study and subsequently in the Summer 2024 resulting in a Village Partnership Initiative “Technical Report”. Collectively these planning efforts looked at a reasonable range of alternatives for a second river crossing in Skowhegan and resulted in a new downtown river crossing connecting Route 150 and Route 2 on the north side of the river with Route 201 to the south as the preferred alternative. This effort is anticipated to include sufficient engineering and environmental analysis for the new downtown river crossing to determine the anticipated bridge type, approaches and evaluation for impacts of connections to the new bridge. Early in the process, the selected consultant team will meet with MaineDOT and the FHWA to review the project tasks and deliverables. The NEPA document is anticipated to generally follow the table of contents for the Frank J. Wood bridge Environmental Assessment available on MaineDOT’s website. MaineDOT has identified that the existing Margaret Chase Smith bridges will need substantive capital work in the next ten years or so. If a new second river crossing is constructed and open to the public when this capital work takes place, traffic control costs will be much lower. Therefore, a thorough and timely competition of this effort is very important. The objectives of the Study are as follows: 1. Obtain a NEPA determination with all required documentation. 2. Continue a proactive approach to obtain public and stakeholder input. 3. Develop a conceptual bridge alternative, including approaches, with cost estimates that will be used as the basis for any applicable future bridge design and replacement effort.
