Dec. 9—The southbound lanes of the Casco Bay Bridge will be fully closed to traffic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday after a driver hit and damaged the barricade on the Portland side Monday morning.
A truck hit the barricade around 10 a.m. Monday, said Paul Merrill, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Transportation.
Vehicles will be rerouted to Veterans Memorial Bridge, about a mile west, the department said in a statement.
A video posted on the department’s social media shows a pickup truck attempting to slow down as the barricade is lowered, but colliding with it and snapping the arm off into the roadway. It’s not clear how fast the driver was going or whether they were injured.
Repairs will likely cost between $20,000 and $25,000, with parts alone accounting for roughly $20,000, Merrill said. He said the department has one spare arm, which will be used tomorrow, and will need to order another one.
Merrill said the daytime closure might be inconvenient for drivers, but makes the best use of the department’s resources in light of the storm expected late Monday night into Tuesday.
“By the time they got a traffic plan put together, they would have been up against the overnight weather and would likely have people diverted to plowing,” Merrill said on a Monday afternoon call.
He noted that the closure will mostly impact those heading off the peninsula and “hopefully will be long gone” by the end of the workday.
This story will be updated if more information becomes available.
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