SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Construction crews from Shaw Brothers Construction worked Wednesday to replace and fill in a collapsed culvert on Sawyer Street in South Portland.
A small hole opened up on the road Monday, revealing the collapse. It comes after a busy spring and early summer for crews throughout much of the state, as storms destroyed culverts and overflowed sewage systems.
Maine Department of Transportation Chief Engineer Joyce Taylor said Wednesday she’s surprised Maine hasn't lost more culverts this year and said her department has moved to upgrade systems so they can handle so-called "100-year storms" that are happening more and more often.
"We’ve been looking at all of our culverts going, 'OK, here’s the age. They’re over 50 years old, and they’re a metal culvert. That’s not good. Here’s where they’re probably undersized,' and trying to predict those locations and get to those ones before they, basically, age out or get washed out," Taylor said.
Taylor explained her department has maps and itemized lists of each recorded culvert on state roads.
Long-term solutions to these problems are being developed in Orono.
University of Maine civil engineering professor Dr. Roberto Lopez-Anido explained how the university is developing new culverts that can be custom-made—and 3D printed—for each site without driving up costs.
"We have that freedom of design where we can customize the inlet and outlet, and that is, I think, what helps the rural areas in Maine, where every town. Every culvert will have different conditions," Lopez-Anido said.
Taylor added that there has been a big push to include fish passages in new culverts, which she said is a win-win. The department has been installing increasingly large culverts, large enough to fit both water and the animals that travel in the water.