The I-95 Broadway Bridge Switch in Bangor and What It Means for Truck Claims

Southbound I-95 moves to a new bridge this weekend

If you run the I-95 corridor through Bangor, Maine, plan for a different road this weekend. From Friday, October 16 through Monday, October 19, 2026, the Maine Department of Transportation is working on the I-95 bridges over Broadway at Exit 185, moving southbound traffic off the temporary crossing and onto the new permanent bridge. Q96.1 out of Presque Isle reported on October 12 that crews will be reconstructing shoulders, milling and repaving to tie the new deck into the existing highway.

Bangor is the hinge of northern Maine freight. Loads heading down from Aroostook County, the mill towns along the Penobscot, and the border crossings funnel through this stretch before they reach Augusta, Portland and points south. A weekend of lane closures and ramp detours here touches a lot of trucks, and for small fleets the cost of a work zone fender bender is far larger than the delay. If you are shopping commercial truck insurance in Maine, this is the kind of exposure a good policy is built around.

The four phases and the Exit 185 detour

According to the MaineDOT schedule as reported by Q96.1, the work rolls out in stages. First, the southbound high speed lane closes so crews can mill and pave both ends of it, while the travel lane and the nearby ramps stay open. Next, the high speed lane reopens across the new bridge, and the southbound travel lane and the Exit 185 southbound off ramp close. During that window, traffic for Broadway is sent to Exit 186 at Stillwater Avenue, then down Stillwater Avenue to Broadway.

In the third phase the Exit 185 off ramp reopens, but the southbound travel lane stays closed and the on ramp may close for a short stretch. If it does, drivers headed south are routed down Broadway to Stillwater Avenue and back onto I-95 at the Exit 186 on ramp. Last, all the new southbound lanes and ramps open on the new bridge. MaineDOT says message boards, signs and cones will mark each change, so the pattern you saw on Friday may not be the pattern you see on Sunday.

Why this bridge matters

The Bangor Daily News reported on October 2 that the old Broadway crossing is a 152 foot steel girder bridge built in 1960, rated in poor condition by transportation officials, and carrying about 50,000 vehicles a day. The replacement is a project of more than $30 million. Local reports differ on the finish line, with Q96.1 pointing to the end of 2026 and the Bangor Daily News citing late 2027, so expect some form of work zone here for a while. Earlier in October the city also cut southbound Broadway to one lane under the interstate during weekday daytime hours so crews could work beneath the new bridge.

It is also not the only job in town. The same report noted the Ohio Street bridge was replaced in 2020, the Union Street bridge in 2016, and a multi year rebuild of the Hogan Road interchange is underway. Bangor has been a rolling construction zone for most of a decade, and drivers who know the city by memory are often the ones caught out by a new pattern.

Where work zone claims come from

Most work zone losses for trucks are not dramatic. They are a rear end hit when traffic stacks up short of a lane drop, a trailer clipping a barrel line or a concrete barrier on a tight shift, or a sideswipe when a car cuts in at the last second before the merge. Detours add another layer, a loaded 53 foot trailer making turns on city streets around Stillwater Avenue and Broadway that it would never see on the interstate.

When you hit someone else, your commercial auto liability coverage pays for their vehicle and injuries. When the damage is to your own tractor or trailer, whether from a barrier, a barrel, or an at fault crash, that falls to physical damage coverage, which many owner-operators drop to save money and regret the first time a barrier eats a fender. A few habits help either way. Leave extra following distance where the lanes narrow, take the posted detour instead of guessing at a shortcut, keep a forward facing dash camera running, and photograph the scene before anything is moved.

Get covered before your next run through Bangor

Bridge work is a fact of life on the Maine I-95 corridor, and a clean policy with the right limits is what keeps one bad merge from becoming a season ending bill. See what we write on our Maine truck insurance page, then get a truck insurance quote in under a minute through our quick quote form. Prefer to talk it through? Call or text 423-264-4255 and a licensed agent will walk you through liability, physical damage and cargo options for your operation.