Roadwork on U.S. Route 2 in Orono will force users of the Community Connector bus service to rethink their commutes starting next week and could snarl some Bangor-area traffic throughout August.
The Maine Department of Transportation on Monday will close a section of Route 2 in Orono about a mile south of the intersection of the Kelley Road-Route 2 intersection so crews can replace a culvert.
While the road will be open to local traffic, it will be down to one lane. The detour around the work is 6 miles long and about a nine-minute drive to get back onto Route 2, according to the department.
The road closure will disrupt Community Connector schedules for buses serving Veazie, Orono and Old Town, creating longer bus rides and limiting service to Veazie. As part of the closure, the Community Connector bus service will not serve riders who want to go to Bangor directly from Veazie.
The work on Route 2 is expected to last almost the entire month of August, with planned detours in place from Aug. 1-30. Work on the project began in June and is expected to go into early September. It will cost $989,554, according to Department of Transportation spokesperson Paul Merrill.
For those who rely on the bus, riders can get to Veazie from Bangor, but not the other way around, according to a notice from the Community Connector.
For those who do catch outbound buses from Veazie — those with Old Town as their final destination — riders should expect a 10-minute adjustment to current bus timetables. If an Old Town-bound bus is normally slated to arrive at the University of Maine student union at 6:45 p.m., it will not arrive until 6:55 p.m.
There will be two bus rides a day on which a rider hoping to travel from Old Town to Veazie can end up at their destination.
Riders looking to catch a Bangor-bound bus from Old Town Plaza at 5:15 p.m. or 6:15 p.m. can request that the driver bring them to Veazie.