Permanent repair efforts coming in next couple of weeks

Shaun Farrar

Oct 21, 2025

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Havana.

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TRENTON—A broken joint on the Trenton Bridge led to traffic tie-ups, Monday afternoon.

On October 20, 2025, at approximately 2:30 p.m., the Bar Harbor Police Department said it received its first call that traffic was backed up on Route 3 and Route 102 and not moving very well.

According to Bar Harbor Police Sgt. Doug Brundrett, drivers had already been sitting in traffic close to an hour before that first call was received.

Maine Department of Transportation’s Joe Lacerda, replying to an email inquiry this morning, said that the cause of the traffic backup was due to a necessary emergency repair of a broken bridge joint on the Trenton Bridge.

According to Sgt. Brundrett, the police department received no prior notification of the bridge work and by the time officers had made their way to the work site, DOT was wrapping up its work. This was at approximately 2:45 p.m.

There were, most likely, two main issues causing the severe traffic jam: the bridge being down to one lane and the use of temporary traffic lights by DOT that were not in synch with the regular traffic lights at the head of the island.

Sgt. Brundrett said that at one point he drove around to check on traffic backups on both Route 3 and Route 102 and found traffic to be backed up to Norway Drive at Hamilton’s Pond on Route 3, approximately 5 miles, and to the Somesville One Stop on Route 102, approximately 7 miles.

Once DOT had cleared the work site and removed the temporary traffic lights, three officers from the Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Police Department remained on scene until just after 6 p.m. trying to get traffic flowing normally again.

While some people reported road rage incidents on social media, no official reports were received by the police department according to Sgt. Brundrett.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s repair was only temporary and a permanent repair will need to take place within the next couple of weeks according to Lacerda.

Lacerda said that there are two options for repair and which option will be chosen is “in Augusta’s hands.”

One option will require the bridge to be shut down to one lane and the repair may take “a week or more” depending on what DOT finds when they start the repair. Lacerda did not give any time frame of work for the second repair option.

The “bridge is safe,” Lacerda said, “We will be checking the temporary repair on a regular basis to make sure it is still intact (sic) and working.”

Prior to the next repairs, DOT will be placing mobile messaging boards to notify motorists of the upcoming traffic delays.

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