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Contractor must reopen Free Street by Nov. 23, City of Portland says

This comes after the street being closed for months due to ongoing construction, which was supposed to be complete in June.

PORTLAND, Maine — The City of Portland told the contractor handling ongoing construction on Free Street that the road must be reopened by close of business on Nov. 23, according to officials. 

Jessica Grondin is the director of communications for the City of Portland. In an email on Wednesday, she told NEWS CENTER Maine work was supposed to be done by Tuesday since winter is approaching. 

"We can't have work like this happening should we get a storm and need to perform winter operations," Grondin said in the email. 

The project has already seen several delays, which is why the city gave them a final hard deadline. 

Of course, this doesn't mean all work will be completed by Nov. 23, but the city wanted Free Street open for the aforementioned reasons. 

"It is not uncommon to grant extensions past the deadline, but this time of year those extensions can be day-to-day depending on weather," Grondin said.

As for any penalties for the delays, those would need to be discussed with Portland's corporation counsel. Grondin did not have that info as of Wednesday evening. 

But for the businesses along Free St, many of which have closed reportedly due to the construction project blocking tourists, this deadline came too late.

"It just feels disrespectful," Brett Davis, an employee at Marcy's Diner said. "To be doing this now instead of intervening when they saw businesses shutting down."

Davis said he was hired at Marcy's after the construction started, and said the complications between the city and Gordon Contracting are "obnoxious."

"We can't force the city to do something but now they are, which is cool, but now it's too little too late."

Gordon Contracting representatives did not reply to calls or texts the days before the weekend.

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