MACHIAS, Maine — The Canadian Coastal Corridor study of the area of Washington County from Eastport to Danforth was recently completed and will now be used to plan future transportation improvements.
The study was the project of the Maine Department of Transportation and looked at all forms of transportation — highway, rail, air, pedestrian, cyclists and ports.
“This will be used as a road map to implement future plans,” Sandi Duchesne of Greenlight Solutions LLC, the firm hired to conduct the study, said Tuesday. “The MDOT budget is so very limited that it needs to make sure that investments provide a regional benefit and are not just one town’s pet project.” The changes recommended by the CCC plan will be implemented over the next 10 to 15 years, she said.
Four work sessions were held across the northeastern tier of Washington County and Duchesne said they were very well attended by a diverse population.
Two conclusions stood out, Deschesne said.
“It was unanimously agreed that there is a great need for wider shoulders on the roadways,” she said. There is a diverse group of users — commuters, commercial freight haulers, tourists and an ever expanding number of cyclists — that need to share the roads, she said. “Everyone agreed that a little extra width would make all the difference in the world, especially in terms of safety.”
She said that many others agreed that the funding mechanism for MDOT needs to be changed. Currently, projects are paid for from a pot filled through taxation and a blend of state, federal and local funds.
“There is a great need for changing how the MDOT is funded,” Duchesne said. “Business as usual is not going to take us into the future.”
During the sessions, participants brainstormed about future growth in Washington County, identifying energy development, tourism and natural resource extraction — such as logging and pulp — as the three major areas.
Some of the suggestions for these areas included establishing a seasonal ferry service between Eastport and Lubec, expanding tourist services on the CCC, developing small harbors as tourism destinations, developing freshwater and saltwater access points, seeking ways to separate tourism traffic and commercial traffic, and examining the feasibility of rail tourism that could blend passenger and freight services.
The committee also suggested examining the feasibility of reviving a rail route between Baileyville and an old siding in Tomah Township for wood extraction.
Other suggestions included reconstructing major routes or providing better maintenance, expanding the current 25-car limit on trains coming into Woodland, improving telecommunications, extending the Sipayik Trail all the way to Eastport, developing a Quoddy Loop bicycle touring circuit through Maine into New Brunswick and assessing current airports and offerings.
A draft of the plan can be downloaded at http://wccog.net/docs/transport/DECPlan07-20-09.pdf.