Motorists looking to travel across the new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge - which will carry the U.S. Route 1 bypass between Kittery, Maine, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will have to wait a little longer.
State Transportation officials says the span is scheduled to be opened to traffic by year's end. And Maine Department of Transportation spokesman Ted Talbot says the opening ceremony, which had been scheduled for Dec. 1, has been pushed back until spring.
Talbot says weather is becoming an issue. "We will take our time to really plan a real community event between the municipalities of Kittery and of Portsmouth, he says. "It may involve some of the schools that are there and some other marching bands and parades, with the Navy and the U.S Coast Guard. We'd really like to do just a wonderful job for this very, very impressive structure."
Original plans called for the bridge to open to traffic in mid September. Talbot says the goal is to have the entire project completed next summer.
