Maine wins $65 million for bridge repairs, including Sagadahoc County span work

Sen. Susan Collins announced that Maine will receive $65 million through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Competitive Highway Bridge Program, and she highlighted rural projects that include two Sagadahoc County spans: the Cathance Road bridge in Topsham, built in 1920 over the Cathance River, and Burrough Road, known locally as Cobbs Bridge, in Bowdoin, built in 1936 over the Little River. Collins described the program as addressing "the unique challenges facing our rural communities" and said replacement bridges will be designed for a 75-year service life.

The statewide award announced in early April is split into two CHBP grants: $38,712,000 for a package titled Critical Connections: Preserving Mobility for Rural Economies, and $26,288,000 for an Interstate 95 Decks in Distress bundle. The Federal Highway Administration reported a national CHBP tranche of about $407.7 million awarded April 8, 2026 to rebuild 119 rural bridges in 12 states, making Maine’s $65 million roughly 16 percent of the national total.

MaineDOT project attachments reprinted in Collins’ materials list the 11 bridges included in the Critical Connections bundle, spanning seven counties: Androscoggin, Franklin, Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc, and Somerset. The Sagadahoc entries are explicit: Cathance Road in Topsham and Burrough Road/Cobbs Bridge in Bowdoin. Other listed bridges in the bundle range in build years from 1922 to 1974 and include crossings such as Pleasant Pond Stream, McGurdy Stream, and the West Branch Carrabassett River.

MaineDOT guidance gives a sense of timing and impact: bridges added to the work plan typically require about two years for preliminary engineering, permitting, and easements, with construction potentially taking up to two years. MaineDOT detour maps included with the CHBP attachments show some rural bridges with very long detours or no practical detour, with certain National Bridge Inventory detour calculations listed at 100 miles or described as no available detour, underscoring the local travel disruption a failure or prolonged closure could cause.

Commuters and freight operators in the Bath-Topsham corridor should expect phased work that begins with engineering and public outreach, followed by temporary traffic changes, signed detours, and short-term closures during construction. The CHBP package is also expected to generate local construction jobs and contracting opportunities tied to the work on the 11 bridges, while reducing long-term maintenance costs for state and municipal budgets.

MaineDOT and federal partners will publish project schedules and begin municipal outreach as preliminary engineering advances; based on MaineDOT timelines, a Sagadahoc bridge in this bundle could move from planning into construction within roughly two to four years, depending on permitting and bidding outcomes.