Northbound I-295 reopens early
As of this morning, northbound I-295 is reopened to traffic, 20 days earlier than scheduled. It will take another day until the southbound section of highway is ready for vehicles.
Westbrook-based Pike Industries completed the highway rehabilitation project three weeks ahead of time, garnering a $2 million bonus for completing the project at least 20 days in advance, Brad Foley, highway program manager at the Maine Department of Transportation, told Mainebiz this morning. The total project cost was $35.3 million, including the bonus, and was the first Maine transportation project in 2009 to be 100% funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Southbound lanes will be open by tomorrow morning, giving crews time to reconfigure the stretch of highway that had been used for northbound cars, Foley said.
Pike Industries hired 30 new employees for the project, and "preserved" another 100 jobs, Jim Hanley, Pike's government affairs manager, told Mainebiz. But he says the economic impact goes beyond Pike. Hanley uses a formula used by the Federal Highway Administration that supposes for every $1 million spent on a highway project, 28 jobs are supported in the local economy. Using that calculation, the project supported roughly 980 jobs. "It's very difficult to pin down how many jobs are created," Hanley says. "That's why we fall back on the federal formula."
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