Before October 2016, when the tearing down and building up of the Route One viaduct project in Bath was due to begin, I was already dreading the drive over the Sagadahoc Bridge to Boothbay Harbor. I expected long lines of vehicles held up for hours while Bath Iron Works workers tried to get home, or to work. At certain times of the day, those workers rule, and that was around the time I planned to commute to the Boothbay Register.

But it never happened, no matter what time I took the trip. It was a quick exit off Route One down along the street fronting the Bath post office and the pizza place to the right, a short wait for a light, and up onto the bridge. Done. On the return trip, I sat on the bridge a few times, and I mean maybe four times. The horrible snarl of traffic, the beeping horns, the stressed-out bad tempered drivers, possible road rage leading to people being tossed over the bridge railings, never came to pass.

It was fascinating to see the long trucks with gargantuan bars of cement or pieces of rail being lifted by massive cranes up onto the roadbed under construction. It was interesting to observe how the contractor got things done in such a professional manner. “How are they going to do THAT?” I asked myself when I saw something that seemed impossible to do without disrupting the flow of things. I said to myself, they certainly will have to stop traffic. What about the telephone wires and the lights at the big intersection on Washington Street? They’ll have to take it all down. How’s that going to work? And then, poof, the next day, the puzzle had been solved and I traveled on my way.

On Wednesday, May 3, at noon, the new viaduct opened, to a great beeping of horns and shouts of Thank You! I was on the bridge above, waving to cars underneath traveling over the new structure. So were a lot of other people, and I suspect it made the news on several television stations. I shook the hand of Wayne Frankhauser Jr., P.E., program manager, Bureau of Project Development, Bridge Program, Maine Department of Transportation and said, “Thank you!” I asked him how the project was done so fast, and so well.

“Well, the contractor (Reed & Reed, Inc. of Woolwich) did an amazing job. The weather was okay for the most part. But the difference between when this project was done versus the last time the bridge was built is that the major parts were pre-constructed and lifted onto the work site,” Frankhauser said.

I told him I had been worried about getting to work, that I thought it was going to be a mess.

“So did I, at first,” he said.

But it never was a mess. And now, it’s done.