The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has denied a request by Wawenock LLC et al for a temporary injunction that would have delayed Maine Department of Transportation’s downtown project in Wiscasset.

The law court heard oral arguments May 15. In its ruling May 17, the court said that for a temporary injunction to be granted, the plaintiffs had to show they would suffer irreparable harm,  that the harm outweighed the harm to the other party, that the plaintiffs would likely succeed in their appeal of the case, and that the public interest would not be adversely affected.

“After a review of the submissions and the oral arguments of May 15, we conclude that the LLCs have failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of their appeal. Because failure to establish any one of the four criteria for injunctive relief is fatal to such a motion, we do not consider whether the LLCs have demonstrated the remaining three requirements for obtaining a preliminary injunction,” Justice Ellen Gorman wrote.

Work on the downtown project is set to begin shortly after Memorial Day.