Bangor Street in Augusta Will Be Going From 4 Lanes to 3 Lanes Permanently

A new road project slated for Augusta's Bangor Street will see the road go from it's current 4-lane structure to 3. However, only two of the new 3-lane design will be travel lanes.

The project is, in part, a piece of a bigger plan to help reduce crashes between motor vehicles and pedestrians and cyclists. According to the Kennebec Journal, in the last 20 years there have been nearly 3 dozen crashed that involved pedestrians and/or cyclists. In that span, one of those crashes sadly resulted in a fatality.

The new state-planned project just received a $4.8 million boost in federal funding to help facilitate the project. The new project will also be funded by $1.2 million in state money, bringing the project total to an estimated $6.02 million, the KJ says.

The road construction project will revamp 1.4 miles of Bangor Street from Cony Circle north. It will take the existing 4-lane road and change it to 3 lanes. There will be 2 travel lanes (one in each direction) and a center turn lane for traffic turning off of the street to use without impeding the flow of travel lane traffic.

Additionally, the 'new road' will be equipped with wider shoulders for cyclists and 'refuge islands' for pedestrians to use. A refuge island is a place where pedestrians crossing the road can stop between lanes to wait for oncoming traffic to pass. The plan also calls for flashing signs to indicate to drivers when a pedestrian has entered a crosswalk, according to the Kennebec Journal.

Currently there is no set-in-stone date for the start of the project. We will keep this story updated as more information becomes available.