ROCKLAND, Maine — The rebuilding of a deteriorated section of the heavily-traveled Old County Road should begin in April.
City Manager James Chaousis said Crooker Construction LLC of Topsham has been selected to upgrade the road from Thompson Meadow Road to Route 17.
The work, which is expected to be done by the end of July, will consist of rebuilding the road and paving it. The road will be widened to include a bicycle lane and shoulders.
Crooker was not the low bidder, but the city manager said the company was selected because of its experience on major road projects. In the formula used by the city to select a firm, experience counted for up to 50 points out of a total of 100. Crooker was awarded 42.5 points for experience compared with 30 points for Farley & Sons of Rockport.
Farley submitted a bid of $2,480,647. Crooker was the second lowest bidder at $2,743,028 — a difference of $262,381.
Farley was given additional points for being a local bidder, but it was not enough to overcome Crooker’s experience, the manager said.
Five firms bid on the work.
In November 2014, city residents voted 2,047 to 551 to approve borrowing $1.6 million for the project. The city manager said the Maine Department of Transportation will cover the rest of the cost of the work.
Old County Road runs from Route 1 in Thomaston to Route 1 in Rockport. The City Council received considerable complaints from residents about the road’s poor condition before that referendum.
A committee consisting of representatives of interested parties along the 6-mile-long road called in April 2013 for major improvements to the road, particularly with the expected increase in traffic with the opening of the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Thomaston. That store opened in October 2013.
“The current roadway is too narrow with crumbling shoulders and poor drainage. This has been on the Maine DOT work plan since the 1990s or earlier and should be included in the Old County Road rebuild,” the committee report stated.
In 2010, the Maine Department of Transportation found that 7,700 cars use the Rockland section of the road on an average day.