Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill into law last month allowing the Maine Department of Transportation to borrow $50 million from grant-anticipated revenue vehicle bonds to pay for the replacement of the Waldo-Hancock Bridge.

The GARVEE bonds are to be repaid with annual federal transportation appropriations and state matching funds when the next fiscal year begins in July, The Ellsworth American reported.

In addition, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, R-ME, and Rep. Michael Michaud, D-ME, recently announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation has released $2.3 million to go toward the bridge project on U.S. 1 in southeast Maine.

Those funds are part of a $4 million grant awarded by the Federal Highway Administration under the fiscal year 2004 Transportation and Treasury Appropriations.

The remainder of the grant for the construction of the new Penobscot River crossing, replacing the 72-year-old suspension bridge, will be released later in the year.

The projected cost of the bridge is $75 million.