MDOT Route 1

Route 1 in Ogunquit is one of the most heavily traveled roads in Maine. Beginning in the winter of 2015, Maine DOT and R.J. Grondin & Sons embarked on a $13.3 Million project to reconstruct the entire 2.3 mile stretch of Route 1 in the town of Ogunquit as well as replace two bridges over the Ogunquit and Josias Rivers. Running concurrently with the road project, the sidewalks and streetscape at the heart of the village got a major facelift due to an additional $1.3M in funding from the town. Other than I-95, Route 1 is the only other major road that runs through town, so these improvements were vital to the community.

Due to the heavy tourism economy in the area and associated traffic volumes, Maine DOT and the Town of Ogunquit made many compromises to minimize inconveniences to local businesses and tourists. As noted by MDOT Sr. Project Manager, Ernie Martin, “Construction is always difficult on a major route like this one.” The single biggest way to alleviate many problems for the town was to cease road construction operations during the busiest 11 weeks in the summertime which creates a major challenge for the contractor because it is peak season for road building.

Responsiveness to the Town of Ogunquit’s needs were paramount with this project and were met by greatly modifying our work schedule, through very up-to-date progress information by way of a very active Facebook and MDOT website page, as well as weekly meetings with many town representatives, MDOT engineers and all contractors and sub-contractors on-site. Over 73,000 hours were worked by our own workforce over the life of the project and there were no recordable OSHA incidents or any PUC violations. Safety First is our official motto and it’s not just a saying, it’s how we approach our work every day.

Some statistics for the project:

2 new bridges were built within the working limits of the project
2.6 miles of new brick & paved sidewalks installed
6.5 miles of drainage pipe and 181 precast concrete drainage structures installed
4 miles of new granite curb
17,000 tons of underdrain sand
48,000 tons of 3” gravel placed
50,000 tons of common excavation removed
10,000 tons of ¾” crushed stone
21,000 tons of hot mix asphalt

Even though this $13 Million project’s duration was 19 months, we were only able to work on the site in earnest for 15 of those months due to the summertime shut down which is the peak construction season. This different approach to alleviate congestion due to tourists, combined with the sheer size of the project, aggressive schedule and project completion being ahead of schedule and under budget, made this a WINNER of the 2017 AGC Build Maine Award in the Highway/Bridge category.