ELLSWORTH, Maine — The lower end of Main Street reopened to traffic Sunday night after a nearly 24-hour closure for road construction.
Crews from Sargent Corp. dug up a roughly 60-foot stretch of Main Street near the intersections with Water and State streets in order to permanently repair the cause of an 8- to 10-foot sinkhole that opened in the middle of downtown Ellsworth over the summer.
The workers were forced to dig down deep under the road surface to replace a metal culvert that had failed during a heavy rainstorm in August. The Maine Department of Transportation contracted with Sargent to perform the repairs.
Traffic on Routes 1 and 3 into downtown Ellsworth had to be rerouted during the repairs, which lasted from 6 p.m. Saturday until about 5 p.m. Sunday. Workers likely will return in the coming week to lay down a new layer of blacktop on the site.