CARIBOU, Maine — Work is nearing completion on a multimillion-dollar transportation project aimed and easing the flow of truck traffic through central Aroostook County.
The 3.8-mile-long, $20 million Caribou Connector was recommended as part of a larger Aroostook County Transportation Study.
The study’s primary goal was to identify transportation improvements that would help lead to future economic growth in the study area.
The intent of the two-stage project was in part to enable the city to move ahead with downtown development plans while making it more pedestrian friendly.
Work began in 2010 on the connector, which begins just south of the Caribou Country Club on route 161 and heads east, passes over Route 1 and again over Route 89 and continues west until it connects with routes 1 and 89 south of Bennett Drive.
Entrance and exit ramps are in place leading to and from Route 1, commonly called Van Buren Road in the area.
“The work has been going fantastic,” Martine Burnham, Maine Department of Transportation resident-inspector, said on Friday. “The contractors are top notch and everyone has gone above and beyond to give us a good project.”
The project took place in two segments, Burnham said, with Soderberg Construction of Caribou completing the first one-mile section that included a so-called “bridge in a backpack” over the ITS recreational trail.
The bridge was developed at the University of Maine as lightweight, corrosion-resistant systems for short to medium spans.
The components, according to the university’s website, are “easily transportable, rapidly deployable and do not require the heavy equipment or large crews needed to handle the weight of traditional construction materials.”
Segment two, Burnham said, was a bit different in that the contractor, Sergeant Corp. of Stillwater, was responsible for both the design and the build of the section.
“This was not a regular project where DOT designed it,” Burnham said. “They do it all.”
That 2.8-mile-long section, she said, should be done the third week in August.
Subcontractors with Lane Construction are now planting trees and adding greenery to the roadside and plans call for additional guardrails, curbing and lighting to be in place by early August.
An eight-foot-tall fence has also been installed adjacent to the new road to prevent access to large animals like moose and deer.
Funded jointly by the state and federal governments, the route was designed to minimize effects on existing downtown businesses and on agricultural operations.
Burnham said a tentative opening date of Aug. 17 has been set.
Classic waste of taxpayer money, pure and simple. A person heading south on 161 will save next to nothing in time, and if anything, downtown businesses will see less potential business due to less traffic, not to mention the upcoming nightmare on the existing bypass. IF such a road needed building, it could have been done cheaper with less trees planted, fancy mason work on the overpasses, etc. This all adds to the cost.
Doesn’t make sense?? A Maine transportation improvement employing Maine’s skill, knowledge, and labor, with Maine pride that will lead to future economic growth in Aroostook County. Much better than having the project managed by Bain Capital and sourced to a Chinese construction firm. Even though any GOPer in support of Mitt is obligated to making sense of the latter.
Anyone that lives in Caribou knows this won’t bring jobs here. As for your political points of view…. I could care less, this road doesn’t have anything to do with Romney, Obama, or China.
For the love of the potato, it has already brought jobs to the area. Someone once told me that the final required competency for graduating from a post secondary school in the county was to know the difference between a rock and a potato. Looks like you never received you H.S. Diploma. Where did the construction workers come from?? Did they spend some of the money in the local area? What did those exchanging goods for the project money do with their funds? And so on….
Let’s look at what they spent and earned versus total cost of the project. NONE of the workers earned anywhere near a million dollars gross, not to mention net income, of everyone’s tax dollars. I stand by what I said, I live in the Caribou area, and almost no one has anything good to say about this. DO THE MATH By the way, one doesn’t need a college degree to have COMMON SENSE. Just the opposite I have found to be true.
I was 100% opposed to the project and spoke out publicly against it. I can admit I was wrong.
$20 MILLION TAB:
No matter how one looks at the $20 million tab of the Caribou Connector, much of the money was spent in Aroostook County (The County), which benefits the area. The unarguable facts are the money went to Maine people employed by:
1. Maine DOT
2. University of Maine
3. Lane Construction
4. Subcontractors of Lane Construction
5. Soderberg Construction
6. Sergeant Corporation
And the beneficiaries will be by the citizens of the Caribou area, those doing business there, and the entire State of Maine (a unified socialistic group consisting of a unified government).
OWN WORST ENEMY;
It is apparent to many that the people of Aroostook County are their own worst enemy and are convinced that many in the County are quick to go against their own best interest. It’s not hard to convince the rest of Maine to avoid spending any money in the County. Maine has destroyed the heart of many of your individual communities by standing idly by as your village schools are closed and your children are transported many miles to central schools. Your once existing transportation link to the rest of civilization (train rails), at best have been reduced to bicycle paths while heavy tractor-trailers destroy the same highways that you depend on for connection to the world and one another. The great
Loring AFB is but a memory while Senator Collins from Caribou drools at the opportunity to spend endless amounts of deficit federal spending on a little island in Kittery, Maine (Portsmouth Naval Shipyard). Are County veterans still forced to travel hundreds of miles to Togus or Bangor for major medical care? It does not take much of an effort to convince the rest of Maine, especially those from the southern part of the state, that Aroostook County is an unworthy financial investment except for wind farms, forest depletion, power transmission corridors, and as our backyard recreational area.
COMMON SENSE:
In regards to “Common Sense” it is a misnomer. It is a bumper sticker term, typically used by lazy minds to explain away something which requires hard work, commitment, insight, research, and an understanding that is very rare (not common). However, you are correct in assuming that it is not restricted to those holding educational certificates. One would be hard pressed to find more professionals (doctors, lawyers, public servants, managers, accountants, engineers, educators, etc.) per capita, born to any one area than from Aroostook County. Having traveled many parts of the United States, it is not uncommon to find brilliant and successful professionals with family ties to the County. Yet, their only hope for returning to their origin of birth is for a vacation or upon retirement. Why, must a brilliant mind have to abandon their birthplace rather than to remain so that they and their community may prosper? The answers, as having been proved through the County’s history, will not be found within either political party. Nor, is there a “Common Sense” solution to the fault. The answer lies in the “common conviction and commitment” of the County.
DEFICIT SPENDING:
Lastly, the route of your true frustration, I am willing to bet, is the deficit spending trend of our Federal Government. Conservatives should believe that increased spending should be coupled with increases in taxes rather than relying on deficit spending. The problem is our recent wars, under both republican and democrat presidents, have been financed by deficit spending, which has sapped away our country’s economic strength. Our country achieved its once greatness by investments in our future and will achieve greatness once again only by doing the same. It is not the investments in Aroostook County, our public infrastructure, or the likes that is robbing the future from tomorrow’s generation and today’s economy. Rather, it is the deficit spending for our military toys and campaigns!
CONCESSION:
So I concede to your “common sense” opposition to tax dollar spending in Caribou. It is not because Aroostook County is not a worthy investment and that I don’t hope more in the County will be proactive in preserving and benefiting an area great in brain power, history, values, agriculture, and natural resources; Rather, it is because I know the rest of Maine and our country are more than are accepting to the continual rape of your land and the depletion of your resources as we have in the past, Until You Fend For Yourselves!
The VA clinic in Caribou now takes care of many Vets.
Transportation improvements almost always aid the overall economics of an area.
More than likely has something to do with Susan Collins.
I get it! Bain is the new Halliburton!!!
Target Republican candidate. Target eeeevvvill corporation. Wait four years. Repeat.
Very creative of you!!!
Why, just why does someone with a world of knowledge at their fingertips not take the time to check and correct their spelling? It is because they have as much value and conviction for their message and they do for their grammar? haliburton
If you’re going to criticize my spelling, perhaps you should get your sentence structure, punctuation and capitalization right. Just sayin’.
My apologies. Haliburton.
My criticism isn’t about your spelling! It’s more to the point that too many use the box for
the spewing of repetitive and unsubstantiated bumper-sticker-depth-of-knowledge crap from 4-flushers (gambling term for those deceiving others into believing they hold a
5-card flush when in fact they only have 4) from the extreme political right, rather than
use the box as the collaborative educational tool that it is with unlimited self educational
resources. Some of those resources being:
1. MITx
2. Academic Earth
3. TED
4. Curriki
5. Peer to Peer University (P2PU)
6. Khan University
7. The Open University
8. MIT OpenCourseWare
9. Notre Dame OpenCourseWare
10. Yale OpenCourseWare
11. Learn Out Loud
12. Learn That Network
13. About U
14.GCLearnFee.Org
15. VideoJug
16. Textbook Revolution
17. Google Books
18. World Public Library
19. eduCommons
20. University of California – Irvine Online
21. University of California – College Prep
22. Utah State OpenCourseWare
23. Tufts University OpenCourseWare
24. Stanford University OpenCourseWare
25. Sharing of Free Intellectual Assets (SOFIA)
26. Kutztown University
27. University of Southern Queensland
28. Textbooks Free, OpenCourseWare Consortium
29. National Registry of Online Courses
30. John Hopkins University OpenCourseWare
31. Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
32. Berkeley Webcasts
33. 21st Century Learning Products Courses
34. Project Guitenberg
35. iTunesU
36. YouTube Educational Videos
37. BetterFly
38. Learning Space UK
39. Moodle
40. Center for Social Media
41. Learn Out Loud
What in the world are you talking about?
The left is really quite simple – as shown above. Take up your argument with them!
I’m just illustrating it.
Trees are needed not just for decoration, but to keep the soil in place so that it doesn’t wash the road away needlessly and you have to spend thousands of dollars later fixing it.
The trees are planted a good thirty feet away for aesthetic purposes, not for erosion concerns.
yes because they have to right next to the road to prevent erosion, There roots do not grow at all.
From 161 to the access highway, you’ll save around five minutes. But if you were out by the hospital or VFW, and wanted to get over to 161, you had to drive all the way into downtown, and then come all the way back out just slightly to the west of where you started. So that’s where the real improvement is.
This is an example of wasting my money,nothing more, nothing less.
i tried to get a job there and they gave em a web adress and i went it filled it out then got a email with a interview scheduled in bangor
I was really opposed to it but they actually did a really good job…….not as massive a project in size and scope as I thought it would be. Very limited impact on existing people/environment.
This project (combined with the existing Bypass which it connects to) will remove huge numbers of big trucks from downtown Caribou.
That was the idea, wasn’t it? Get the big trucks out of the downtown area so the folks there can develop as they see fit, and it will be more pedestrian friendly.
WONDER WHAT THE “TOLL” PER VEHICLE WOULD BE TO PAY FOR THIS CONSTRUCTION IN THE NEXT TWENTY YEARS?
big waste of money both truck that go through there should thank sue collins for once aain getting a project pushed through that will help her family business get rich. she needs to go with snowe and retire
Total waste of my money…just a nice decoration in extinct potato fields…using money to help farmers keep on potato farming would have bought many more jobs and money to the area….as the fields grow up in trees….$20 million could have helped many people in the area have a better life….
no that is socialism.
With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Just saying.
If you all care so much about your tax dollars, then eliminate EBT cards and drug test people on welfare. Keeping trash from spending my hard earned money makes more sense than not building new roads.
They call it the Caribou Connector connecting to Caribou. And it will be many years before it connects to any place else if it connects at all. So sad, not only a waste of money but an insult to the tax payer.
Well, it’s basically a bypass, connected to the old bypass.
Anyone else think the still picture is comical? Was the bypass built for bikers?
I think we could have spent the money better……like bringing back 8 track tapes