LUBEC, Maine — Public comments on the future of the aging Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Bridge heavily favor replacing the span rather than repairing it, with residents citing cost and construction speed as the deciding factors.
In June, the Maine Department of Transportation and the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure held public hearings in Lubec and Wilson’s Beach, New Brunswick, to gather feedback on potential improvements to the 63‑year‑old international crossing.
According to a timeline published by MDOT, the agency expects to spend several years assessing the bridge, gathering public input and completing permitting and project design. Construction is not expected to begin until 2032.
In May, MDOT’s communications director told Monitor Local the department is focused on “evaluating the structure to determine what improvements may be necessary to ensure its long‑term safety and reliability” before deciding a path forward.
In late July, MDOT told Monitor Local it expects its final report to determine whether the existing bridge should be repaired or replaced. The department said its decision will weigh “initial cost, maintenance costs over the expected life of the improvements, environmental and property impacts, constructability, border agency concerns and public input.”
Following the June hearings, MDOT released 10 written comments submitted by residents. The comments, which are not attributed to individual names, overwhelmingly support replacing the bridge rather than rehabilitating it.
Among the comments were suggestions to consider alternative locations for a new bridge, including a route from the Stockford Park area to the Canada Border Services Agency, or a crossing near the U.S. Post Office in Lubec that would span between the Lost Fishermen’s Memorial and the Mulholland Point Lighthouse.
Commenters questioned the value of rehabilitating the existing bridge, given its age, with one person describing repairs as “just placing a Band‑Aid in a wound.”
Several commenters urged MDOT to build a replacement bridge alongside the current span to keep traffic moving during construction and limit disruptions for residents, business owners and cross‑border travel.
Erik Lookabaugh, owner of Lubec Hardware, said he estimates about one‑third of his customers come from Campobello Island in New Brunswick. The close ties between the two communities make maintaining access during construction essential for local businesses, and he assumes MDOT would keep a route open across the border while work is underway.
A commenter proposed building a causeway instead of a new bridge, similar to the one that connects Moose Island to Eastport near the Passamaquoddy reservation.
In its published response, MDOT agreed a causeway would likely require less maintenance than a bridge, but said it would also need significant environmental permitting, including U.S. Coast Guard approval, and could harm the navigational channel used by Lubec’s fishing and tourism industries.
Damian C. Brady, a University of Maine professor of oceanography who studies how modeling can guide decision‑making in marine ecosystems, said he has not specifically followed plans for the FDR Memorial Bridge. He offered general insight, however, into how large infrastructure projects typically affect coastal waterways in Maine.
“In any of the projects I’ve ever worked on, the big concern is sediment resuspension,” Brady said.
He explained that disturbing organic material and metals such as mercury in river sediments can affect surrounding marine ecosystems.
With the Canadian Whale Institute less than 5 miles from the bridge and seasonal whale migration occurring in the nearby Bay of Fundy from late June through early October, Brady said construction noise would likely pose the greatest concern for larger marine life.
He suggested the best way to mitigate these impacts is to time the construction for a period with low animal activity.
Brady also clarified why MDOT said a causeway would require significant environmental permitting.
With a causeway “there’s the cutting off of flow between both sides of the river,” Brady said, citing issues with the Eastport causeway connecting to Moose Island.
“The (Passamaquoddy) Tribes also feel that the causeway (in Eastport) sort of cut off some of the prime clamming grounds that would have been supplied by larvae had it not been for the causeway,” he said.
The Eastport causeway and any future structure in Lubec sit within the ancestral homeland of the Passamaquoddy people.
No representative from the nearby Sipayik Tribe has publicly commented to MDOT on its initial plans for the FDR Memorial Bridge.
Brady said environmental permitting also weighs factors such as rising sea levels, flooding and changes to water flow. While those issues warrant careful evaluation, he said concerns like sediment disturbance and construction noise, regardless of the structure selected, are usually “very localized and very short-lived” and “highly mitigable” with proper planning.
Although public feedback focused mainly on replacing the bridge and its impact on local industry, the bridge’s historic status raises additional questions about whether rehabilitation has value.
The FDR Memorial Bridge opened Aug. 13, 1962, replacing a ferry service that had long carried residents between Lubec and Campobello Island. It is named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose family kept a summer cottage on Campobello Island.
According to information published by the Maine Memory Network, an international agreement required the United States and Canada to split labor and materials evenly, and an estimated 5,000 people attended the bridge’s dedication ceremony. Eleanor Roosevelt was there, and her son, James Roosevelt, cut the ceremonial ribbon.
Barbara Sellitto, president of the Lubec Historical Society, has lived in Lubec for more than 30 years. In an interview, she said many residents may hesitate to support a new bridge location, even while wanting the aging structure fully replaced, because of longstanding concerns about government property reclamation when the bridge was first built.
“When they built that bridge, they took out a lot of homes and businesses here in Lubec,” Sellitto said.
Maine Memory Network archives show the construction primarily affected residences on Lower Water and Pleasant streets.
With limited resources on Campobello Island, Sellitto stressed the importance of MDOT maintaining an alternative route, such as a one‑lane temporary bridge, while a new bridge is built. She said residents of the island, which has no gas station, bank or easy access to medical care, rely on crossing into Lubec for quick access to essential services.
While the bridge holds historic value as the first major crossing between Maine and New Brunswick, Sellitto said many in the Lubec Historical Society ultimately want MDOT to pursue the safest option. She added that tourists could still visit the Roosevelt family summer cottage in Roosevelt Campobello International Park if the historic bridge were replaced, limiting the impact of its removal.
“Whatever the safest thing is, is what I certainly want MaineDOT to do,” Sellitto said. “But since Lubec lost buildings, businesses and houses when building plans were originally decided, I would not want to see recreational areas like Stockford Park gone, because it will have a huge impact on the community.”
During the next phase of the project, expected to run from summer 2027 through spring 2028, MDOT and the New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will develop and evaluate options for repairing the existing bridge or building a replacement.
That work, informed by engineering analysis and public feedback gathered during the June hearings, will culminate in a preliminary design report to be presented at the next public hearing in fall 2028.
As part of the report, MDOT also plans to evaluate several alternative bridge alignments suggested through public comments. The possible locations will be reviewed using consistent criteria, including “environmental impacts, historic resources, private property, marine navigation, U.S. and Canadian border operations, roadway connections, overall constructability and cost,” according to MDOT.
The department said that while all reasonable alternatives offered will be considered, not every proposed alignment is expected to prove feasible.
Once a preferred plan is selected, the project will move into its final design phase through summer 2031, with construction beginning the next year.
In fall 2028, MDOT also expects to present a tentative construction schedule, potential detour routes and traffic management plans for additional public review before advertising the project to contractors.
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.