Two Edgecomb Maine Department of Transportation projects slated for this fall will likely begin next spring. In 2018, MDOT placed Route 27 and U.S. Route 1 intersection and Eddy Road safety projects on the 2020 priority list. Bids for the combined projects were opened Oct. 14 and the department is in the process of awarding the $2 million project to Sargent Construction of Stillwater. Senior Project Manager Ernie Martin expects construction to begin next spring and end by October 2021.

“We don’t expect any construction this fall so it will be this spring before anything happens,” Martin said. MDOT will install a Florida-T to allow easier access for traffic merging from Route 27 left onto U.S. Route 1 and widen Eddy Road through ledge removal to improve traffic safety. 

Martin explained the Florida-T concept during a July 2018 Edgecomb selectmen’s meeting. The project made the department’s priority list due to the intersection’s high crash rate. MDOT closely monitored traffic flow and accidents there beginning in 2015. The intersection was rated as a “high crash location” based on state accident reports. MDOT studies also showed the intersection to be “one of the most heavily traveled and accident prone in the state.”

During peak travel,14,000 cars daily use the intersection with 5,000 coming from the Boothbay region. MDOT assigns a critical rate factor for determining an intersection’s safety. The Edgecomb intersection has an approximate 3.46 rating which exceeds acceptable state limits, according to Martin.

“Anything above one is high so this is way above that,” he said. MDOT data showed the busy intersection has a lot of low impact, rear end accidents. Martin attributed the high rate to uncertainty for motorists trying to gauge U.S. Route 1 traffic traveling east to west.

“Cars get backed up on (Route) 27 looking for a gap in Route 1 traffic. What happens is they look both ways, think there’s a little gap, hit the gas, stop,  and the person behind them rear ends them,” he said.

The Florida-T would alleviate traffic congestion on Route 27 by adding a protected right lane allowing motorists heading toward Wiscasset to merge with other motorists heading east. Martin explained there would be an island separating the eastward traffic so they would only need to avoid traffic heading west to safely merge with Route 1 traffic.