Cosmo, the highway work is to connect Route 180 directly to Route 1A west of the Union River. As you probably remember, the present Route 180 (Mariaville Road) branches off Route 179 along the way out to Township 8 and crosses the Union River on the dam at the south end of Graham Lake. That road over the dam is deteriorated and has been a single lane "Erector Set" bridge with traffic lights on either side for a number of years. It will be closed completely eventually. Route 180 will be rerouted on a new alignment along the west bank of the Union River directly to 1A, probably somewhere roughly across from New Land Nursery, and that would necessitate a new grade crossing over the Calais Branch which would need to be coordinated with DSRX expansion through there.
Did you by chance live there in the 1980s? I am an ex-resident of Eastbrook who used to travel 179 daily enroute to and from Ellsworth High School. 17 miles each way on a school bus! Now that's Downeast living!