{"id":9865,"date":"2021-01-22T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-22T14:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/?p=9865"},"modified":"2021-01-22T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T14:01:33","slug":"lawsuit-bridges-gap-in-construction-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/lawsuit-bridges-gap-in-construction-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit Bridges Gap in Construction Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_9768\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9768\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ryan-barron-eby8F5oWEw4-unsplash.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9768\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ryan-barron-eby8F5oWEw4-unsplash-300x173.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ryan-barron-eby8F5oWEw4-unsplash-300x173.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ryan-barron-eby8F5oWEw4-unsplash-768x442.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ryan-barron-eby8F5oWEw4-unsplash-1024x590.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ryan-barron-eby8F5oWEw4-unsplash-500x288.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9768\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Who will determine the fate of the bridge?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rehabilitation versus reconstruction is the theme of an ongoing lawsuit in Maine.\u00a0 The Frank J. Wood Bridge will be changing in the foreseeable future, but the question remains whether the bridge will be rebuilt or just modified.\u00a0 Those who oppose the rebuilding of the bridge are the same groups that have filed a lawsuit against the Maine Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.\u00a0 Friends of the Frank J. Wood Bridge, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Historic Bridge Foundation are pushing for rehabilitation.<!--more--><span id=\"more-9767\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The three parties that initiated the lawsuit in 2019 claim that the defendants intentionally overestimated the rehabilitation project based on what is described as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pressherald.com\/2020\/07\/29\/lawsuit-delays-frank-j-wood-bridge-replacement-drives-up-cost\/\">inaccurate information<\/a>.\u00a0 The plaintiffs argue that the reconstruction plan will drain taxpayer funds and there are better options to carry out the preservation of the 83-year-old bridge.\u00a0 MDOT and the Federal Highway Administration have negated the accusations.\u00a0 The disputed reconstruction plan includes a $19.8 million budget and the schedule to take bids for the project in early 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The truss bridge connects traffic from Brunswick to Topsham, Maine, over the Androscoggin River.\u00a0 There is an additional element to the bridge project, involving the development of public parks on either side of the bridge in both Brunswick and Topsham.\u00a0The project is estimated to cost Topsham $360,000 and Brunswick $330,000.\u00a0 The parks are intended to enhance the surrounding areas of the bridge on either end, or create an inviting, functional space for those who use the bridge.\u00a0 Plans for these parks were finalized in early 2020.\u00a0 Despite the plans for both towns to improve the areas around the bridge, a speaker for Friends of the Frank J. Wood Bridge has expressed confidence in the lawsuit and believes MDOT will be ordered to perform rehabilitative construction on the existing Frank J. Wood Bridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rehabilitation versus reconstruction is the theme of an ongoing lawsuit in Maine.\u00a0 The Frank J. Wood Bridge will be changing in the foreseeable future, but the question remains whether the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[2778,2780,2779,2636,2301],"class_list":["post-9865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lawsuits","tag-preservation","tag-reconstruction","tag-rehabilitation","tag-state-and-local","tag-transportation"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9866,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9865\/revisions\/9866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lawyer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}