TIMES RECORD • March 7, 2023
The Brunswick Town Council reiterated its support for the Maine Department of Transportation’s plan to replace the aging Frank J. Wood Bridge on Monday evening, a little over a week after supporters of the historic structure renewed their four-year legal fight to stop the project. MDOT’s cost estimates for the project have more than tripled to $42 million since 2017, which the department blames partly on delays related to a 2019 lawsuit by Friends of the Frank J. Wood Bridge, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Historic Bridge Foundation. While that case moved through the court system, the 805-foot steel truss bridge continued to degrade. In November 2021, MDOT determined the structure unsafe for heavy buses and commercial vehicles.