Welcome mat | Spiff up the York County gateway through improved bridges, toll plazas and rest areas
Interim executive director, Maine Turnpike Authority
The Turnpike is the artery that keeps Maine’s economic lifeblood pumping. Eighty-five percent of all products entering and leaving the state do so via this single 109-mile road.
It is also the welcome mat for most of our visitors en route to attractions ranging from Wells Beach and Mt. Blue State Park to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway and Aroostook County’s Nordic ski trails.
Despite its relatively short length compared to the web of other roads and bridges crisscrossing our huge state, the Turnpike carries 9% of all of Maine’s road traffic, including many 100,000-pound trucks. The pike is built to handle it.
Because the road is supported entirely by tolls, all of the fuel taxes generated by Turnpike drivers — about $21 million annually — pay for Maine’s other transportation needs. In addition, the Turnpike regularly contributes toll money to projects off the Turnpike’s mainline, for example: building new interchanges, improving DOT access roads and supporting Go Maine and Zoom commuter systems.
The Turnpike retains its self-sufficiency while charging one of the lowest toll rates in the country: 4.7 cents per mile for cars and 18.9 cents for 18-wheelers. By comparison, New Hampshire’s tolls in Hampton are more than double at 12.3 and 34 cents per mile, respectively.
As the Turnpike’s executive director for the past three months, I have been helping to craft statutes and policies that will make this public agency more transparent and accountable. The MTA board, staff and key state lawmakers have collectively reached a place where a new administrative era and a much-needed healing process can begin.
We have also focused on the pressing issue of the Turnpike’s York County corridor. This southernmost section of the pike presents two big challenges: We need to replace the outmoded York toll plaza and to remedy problems with all three bridges between Kittery and Portsmouth.
Problems with the York toll are manifold: It was built as a temporary structure 42 years ago; it is poorly positioned on a curve at the bottom of a grade; the adjoining roadway has sunk several feet into the wetlands upon which it was built; Exit 7 is too close, causing motorists to weave when entering and exiting the highway; and the toll plaza lacks the speedy collection capability introduced a year ago in Hampton, N.H. Tourists and truckers endure unnecessary backups during peak travel times.
By any measure, the York toll plaza is ripe for replacement. While we all hope America will develop a successful interstate system for collecting tolls entirely by electronic means and avoiding cash, that hasn’t happened yet particularly for locations like York where half the traffic is from out of state.
E-ZPass, even at present slow speeds, saved the York toll from becoming intolerably obsolete a dozen years ago. While the toll remains a point of congestion, the most prominent choke point is the bridge straddling the Piscataqua River between Maine and New Hampshire. Built six lanes wide in 1972, this high-rise bridge is now slow to handle peak traffic on Sunday afternoons in August. People tend to reduce speed at high elevations. Difficult road geometry on the New Hampshire side also slows traffic. Cars will sometimes back up from the bridge all the way to the York toll seven miles north.
At the Maine-N.H. border, all three aging bridges linking the two states are in dire need of replacement or overhaul. And even though none of them belongs to the Turnpike, the MTA has been tapped to contribute a total of $81 million to the bi-state engineering and construction effort.
As decisions are made in York, we will make them on the basis of science, data and experience and will avoid, as best we can, emotional bias and speculation.
We should be anxious to show tourists that Maine is rolling out the red carpet as they enter the state. At the northbound Kennebunk rest area, over three million people a year get out of their cars. For many, it is their first step on Maine soil. Yet, the only newspaper for sale is U.S.A. Today; the only ice cream is Hershey’s. It’s a beautiful rest stop built only a few years ago, but it needs a Maine flavor. We are in touch with our tenant and with many people connected with Maine tourism to see what we can do. Reader suggestions are welcome.
The Turnpike also has its own radio station (1610 AM) to alert motorists about traffic impediments. Shouldn’t we also advise them about the Yarmouth Clam Festival, the Bangor Folk concerts, snow conditions in the mountains and other good things waiting for them up the road?
Many tourists travel such a long way to get here. When they come back to northern New England again, we want them to stay on I-95 to seek all the adventures Maine has to offer.
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