Maine DOT marches into March Madness with bridge bracket
Courtesy / Maine Department of Transportation
The Maine DOT's “Sweet 16” of Maine bridges seeks to find Maine's favorite one. Daily online votes can be found on social media.
Bridge bracket anyone?
Hopping aboard the March Madness bandwagon, the Maine Department of Transportation is running its own “Bridge Bracket Madness” on social media.
At first glance, the DOT bracket looks a lot like the NCAA college basketball one, except that instead of names like Duke, Kentucky or Kansas, the names of Maine bridges are featured.
To fast track the search for Maine’s favorite bridge, The MDOT is also already on its “Sweet 16.”
Every day, two bridges are pitted against each other in an online one-on-one vote — starting with Penobscot Narrows versus the Maine Kennebec. The result? 87% Penobscot Narrows, 13% Maine Kennebec, according to @MaineDOT1 on Twitter. Penobscot Narrows connects Prospect and Verona Island; Maine Kennebec connects Richmond and Dresden.
“Penobscot Narrows pretty much blew the Maine Kennebec out of the water — no pun intended,” DOT spokeswoman Nina Fisher told Mainebiz on Wednesday, noting that the second-day match-up between the Sunday River Newry Artist Bridge and Casco Bay Bridge was a lot closer.
Votes will be held every day until Maine’s Favorite Bridge is decided and announced by the DOT.
The contest, by the same state agency that held a highway-sign slogan contest last year, is designed to highlight its engineers’ work on Maine's infrastructure along with the DOT’s human — and humorous — side.
“We would like the public to know we’re part of a team, and want them to feel they can interact with us and be social with us and that we’re not just a bureaucratic state agency that doesn’t have a personality,” Fisher said. “Any excuse to highlight our bridges, we’ll take it.”
Asked how the 16 bridges were chosen out of 4,000 total in the state, Fisher said the agency consulted with engineers and staff throughout the building and narrowed down the list from a wide field. She also said there was a general consensus around some of the biggest and newest structures, and the team had to make sure they had good photos of each.
And what do bridge die hards win if they end up nailing Maine’s favorite?
“I think it’s bragging rights,” Fisher said.
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