Maine Department of Transportation officials hope to hold a workshop with Wiscasset selectmen in late March, to talk over the state’s latest ideas for easing summer traffic congestion on Route 1 and making the downtown safer for pedestrians, an MDOT engineer said Feb. 20.

Unlike some past prospects the state has floated, this one would not involve moving Red’s Eats, engineer Gerry Audibert and MDOT spokesman Ted Talbot said.

There would be no taking of land and no boardwalk or other construction to redevelop the waterfront; instead, the department’s current ideas are limited to possible traffic controls and traffic pattern changes, and work potentially involving sidewalks and parking, Audibert said.

“It may not be glamorous, but it can do a lot to help traffic flow more quickly and improve pedestrian safety.” The town may decide it wants just certain parts of what the state has put together, he said.

“It’s kind of a puzzle. The intent would be to go through each piece of the puzzle (at the workshop),” Audibert said.

Audibert and Talbot, interviewed separately, said the department would not proceed with trying to make the project happen if residents don’t want it. “It’s not something we would force on a town,” Talbot said.

Audibert said that, as recently as 2014, the state was in talks with Red’s Eats about another concept, which would have involved moving the famous business at the corner of Route 1 and Water Street. The business did not agree that it was in its best interests to move, so that concept is off the table, he said.

The state has not applied for any grants toward the costs of a project that could result from the current concept. That step, and cost projections, would come after the state knows what the town wants and anything that the town doesn’t want to pursue, Audibert said.

No potential sources of grant money have been ruled in or out, Talbot said Feb. 19.

Town Manager Marian Anderson on Friday said no workshop with selectmen and MDOT has been scheduled, nor will be until the town receives something from the state about what it wants to present.

“We have nothing,” Anderson said.

Wiscasset Waterfront Committee Chairman Susan Robson said she would like to see the state discuss plans it worked on that would have involved moving Red’s Eats, as well as the one that doesn’t. Then everyone could proceed slowly, working together toward something that will work best for the future, Robson said Friday.

The workshop the state is seeking about the downtown is separate from MDOT’s March 10 outreach meeting in Wiscasset, Audibert said. The March 10 one, scheduled for two sessions from 2 to 4 p.m. and then 6 to 8 p.m. at Wiscasset Community Center, is one of 20 the department is holding around the state through early April, said Fred Michaud, a planner in MDOT’s outreach office.

The outreach meetings are not project-specific, Michaud said Feb. 20; their aim is to help gauge transportation needs as the department works on a 20-year, long-range plan, he said. “This is about a bigger conversation,” Michaud said about the outreach meetings.

The Wiscasset sessions will serve to gather input from residents around Lincoln County, Michaud said. They are the only sessions planned in the county, he said.