JAY — A detour for a bridge repair off Route 17 between North Jay and East Dixfield is apparently causing confusion for some drivers.

Residents on Severy Hill Road are noticing more traffic on their road. Some portions of the road and Valley Road are dirt roads. The traffic includes some tractor-trailer trucks.

The Maine Department Of Transportation is putting a new deck on Wheel Wright Bridge, Norman Haggan, regional manager from the Dixfield office, said.

The bridge across Seven Mile Stream is off Route 17 on Severy Hill Road. Although close to Route 17 and the Franklin County line, the road is actually in Dixfield. The bridge repair has closed access to Severy Hill Road at that point.

The detour signs on Route 17 are for those residents on Severy Hill Road, Haggan said. They are detoured from the Jay side of Route 17  to Morse Hill Road and then onto Valley Road to reach Severy Hill Road.

Just before the turn to Morse Hill Road, signs are posted on Route 17. The first says Detour Ahead. A second sign says Severy Hill Road Detour with an arrow pointing to the turn down the road on the left.

Drivers apparently think the detour is on Route 17 and they think they need to go around it by going to Severy Hill Road, local residents Nelson and Beverly Coolidge said.

Their home is near the Y intersection of Severy Hill and Valley roads. They have seen at least four large trucks stop at the Y after traveling around the back roads only to find the road is closed on the other side of the bridge.

“Yesterday the driver of a 53-foot trailer plus the length of the cab, about 70 feet total, struggled to turn the truck around,” Beverly Coolidge said.

It’s not just trucks but more cars, whose drivers are apparently misled, she said.

The MDOT has not received complaints, according to Haggan. He intended to check with the supervisor of the project to see if the signs could be clarified.

The 8- to 10-week project is expected to be finished before school starts. They waited till after school closed to start the project so school buses would have access to the road from Route 17, he said.

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