Greater Portland Area Bridge Repainting

Bridge Painting Expected to Begin Thursday, July 7th.

MaineDOT contractors will be painting bridges in the greater Portland area for the next two to four months. The first three bridges are the Deering Avenue bridge over I-295 and the I-295 northbound and southbound bridges over Preble Street. The work involves removing the existing paint, and reapplying a new and improved paint system. To minimize impacts on traffic, most of this work will be performed overnight between 9pm and 6am at Deering Avenue, and between 7pm and 7am at Preble Street. The painting process will last four to six weeks at each bridge location. The loudest activity is the paint removal process, which should last approximately 10 nights, depending on the weather.

The process to remove the existing paint involves blasting the steel girders with high pressure steel grit. Unfortunately, this necessary process creates high noise and vibration levels. To minimize the noise, MaineDOT has required the contractor to partner with a professional acoustical noise control company to install special sound barriers around this equipment. This will reduce the noise levels.

Depending on your location, you may hear and feel this noise and vibration. We apologize in advance for this inconvenience. Please know we are doing everything possible to complete the
work as quickly and safely as possible.

Painting bridges is not a cosmetic fix. Painting extends the life of the bridges that carry traffic through the Portland corridor.

We hope our work won’t bother you at all, but we wanted to let you know about the possibility and apologize in advance if it does.