BATH, Maine — Less than a month after a dramatic crash that sent a sport utility vehicle through a guardrail and over the edge of the Bath viaduct onto a truck below, the viaduct that carries Route 1 to the Sagadahoc Bridge will close in both directions from 8 p.m. to midnight Wednesday to allow the Maine Department of Transportation to perform maintenance and inspect lights.
Bath police announced the closure on their Facebook page at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, noting that traffic would be detoured around the viaduct.
Maine DOT spokesman Ted Talbot confirmed the closure by email later Wednesday afternoon. Talbot said the closure will allow “maintenance work and light inspection.”
Talbot did not reply on Wednesday to questions about whether the closure is related to the April 4 crash in which a sport utility vehicle broke through a guardrail on the viaduct and landed on its roof in the bed of a pickup truck traveling below.
The driver of the SUV that crashed, Melissa Medina, 37, of Windham, and her son were treated at Maine Medical Center in Portland after the crash. Roy Ordway of Bath, who was driving the pickup truck, was not injured.
Talbot also did not respond to questions about whether Wednesday’s closure is related to a report by the Portland Press Herald that “dozens of guardrail bolts were broken, missing or damaged” and that state officials had previously been warned about the guardrail’s condition.
The viaduct is due to be torn down later this year to make way for a $15 million replacement project.