Maryland State Wire

Gov. Larry Hogan, along with state and local officials, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new Dover Bridge in Preston.

The bridge connects Talbot and Caroline Counties and goes over the Choptank River. It leads Maryland 331 over the river.

The 86-year-old bridge needed help to bear traffic loads that traverse the area, so the project was undertaken to create a second bridge just south of the original bridge. The new bridge was open to traffic on June 12. The original bridge will be restored as a historic structure and will be open as a fishing pier.

The $65.4 million project was undertaken because the original bridge was in visible disrepair, with rust and chunks of concrete missing.

Hogan said he was pleased to announce the completion of the project, which he said was critically important and something people have requested for decades.

"Our administration is proud to not only get it built but deliver this project a full year ahead of schedule," Hogan said in a news release. "We are working hard to rebuild our transportation infrastructure on the Eastern Shore and all across the state."

The original bridge was a swing-span bridge, which caused delays for emergency vehicles and other traffic when boats needed to pass underneath. There were also occasional mechanical breakdowns.

District 4 County Commissioner Rick Price said the new bridge is going to do great things for North Dorchester.

"There are so many folks from North Dorchester who go to Easton for services," Price said in a news release. "It’s going to mean a lot to them."

The new bridge is a fixed-span bridge that is 2,020 feet long and has two 12-foot lanes, 8-foot shoulders and 50-foot clearance above the river, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation. The new bridge was constructed by McLean Contracting and led by project engineer Trudi Gaito.

At the ribbon-cutting, Hogan said he was delivering on a promise to fix all structurally deficient bridges in the state.

“All 69 structurally deficient bridges identified in June 2015 have now been rehabilitated, replaced, or are in the construction phase,” a statement from Hogan's office said. “Just three years after his promise to fix these 69 bridges, the final projects are being advertised for construction this month.”

Hogan said at the event that it was a great day for the Eastern Shore.

"People have been begging for decades," Hogan said at the event. "It has finally become a reality."

The projects included rehabilitation of 11 bridges along Salisbury Bypass that cost $28.1 million; dualization of MD 404 between U.S. 50 and Denton, which cost $158 million; and widening of U.S. 113 Phase 3, which is almost complete and cost $133.9 million.