Reed & Reed wins $17.4M turnpike contract

Courtesy / Maine Turnpike Authority An artist's rendering shows what the EZPass Open Road Toll facility will look like at Exit 44 of the Maine Turnpike when it's completed by the Woolwich-based Reed & Reed construction firm.

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By Staff

Woolwich-based construction firm Reed & Reed has been hired to build an E-ZPass Open Road Toll facility near Exit 44 of the Maine Turnpike.

Reed & Reed, Maine’s second-largest construction company, won the contract with its low bid of $17.4 million., the Maine Turnpike Authority said Friday.

The new toll plaza will be just north of an existing toll plaza near Interstate 295’s Exit 1. It will include four open road toll lanes (two in each direction), which will allow E-ZPass users to cruise through at highway speeds while sensors collect the toll electronically.

“This new ORT plaza, the fourth on the Maine Turnpike, is among the high technology improvements that, step by step, will bring Maine’s most vital highway up to par with the most sophisticated highway systems in the country,” said Peter Mills, MTA’s executive director. “It’s quite fitting that we continue to modernize as we celebrate the 70th year of the opening of New England’s first ‘superhighway’ in 1947.”

Maine’s other ORT plazas are located on Interstate 95 in New Gloucester, West Gardiner and on the Falmouth Spur off Exit 52.

Reed & Reed has annual revenue of $125 million and 250 employees, according to a Mainebiz list of Maine-based construction companies published in the April 3 edition. Its largest project last year was the $100 million Bingham Wind Project. It is also working on the Bath viaduct replacement, a project valued at $14 million. Reed & Reed is led by President and CEO Jackson Parker.

Four-phase project

To minimize the impact on turnpike travelers, the project will be done in four phases over the next three construction seasons, with completion scheduled for summer 2019.

Phase 1: Roadway widening
Widening of I-295’s northbound and southbound lanes for the construction of paved, temporary lanes and the beginning of construction for the administrative building, parking area, access road and snowplow turnaround.

Phase 2: ORT and tunnel construction
Redirecting the two southbound and two northbound lanes around an interior work zone to allow the contractor to build the ORT lanes, partial construction of the concrete median barrier separating the ORT lanes and the cash lanes, ORT space frame and foundations and partial construction of the utilities tunnel beneath the toll plaza.

Phase 3: Cash lanes construction
Completing the northbound and southbound cash lanes, access road, administrative building, and parking area. Testing of the ORT lanes will likely require short-term closures of the existing cash lanes and proposed ORT lanes.

Phase 4: Demolition of existing facility
Removal of the old toll plaza, the existing MTA utility building and parking area.

Additional information about the project can be found here.