BREWER, Maine — Maine transportation officials recently eliminated the proposed route they selected in 2003 to ease heavy traffic flow between Canadian Maritime Provinces and the federal highway system and now support the route preferred by Holden residents.
News of the state’s new preferred route — 2B2 — to connect Route 9 and Interstate 395 came as a surprise to municipal leaders in Brewer and Eddington, who said this week they knew nothing about the Maine Department of Transportation’s plans until late last week.
“I hadn’t heard anything,” Eddington Town Manager Russell Smith said Thursday. “A lot of people weren’t happy that they picked a route and nobody had any say about it.”
In addition to being surprised by MDOT’s choice, some residents also are angered by it, Smith said.
“I think it displaces a lot more homes and properties, so I don’t know how they came about [selecting] it,” he said. “I know there is a lot of people who aren’t happy.”
The 2B2 route would extend I-395 at its Wilson Street junction and would roughly follow the Holden-Brewer line, mostly on the Brewer side, until entering Eddington and connecting with 4.5 miles of rebuilt Route 9.
Brewer City Manager Steve Bost said Tuesday that a resident contacted city leaders last Thursday.
“He started emailing city councilors here in Brewer saying, ‘Are you aware that the I-395 Route 9 connector project had been reactivated?’” Bost said. “I did not know and neither did the City Council.”
Bost contacted Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, who he said also was in the dark about MDOT’s plans.
Holden Town Manager John Butts said Thursday that the town planner recently checked the project’s website and found the information, then gave town leaders an informal update.
The last official action taken by Brewer city leaders was in 2009, when the City Council endorsed the state’s former preferred route — 3EIK-2 — which has been eliminated.
“We assumed that until such time that there is a significant funding source identified to pay for construction, the project was on ice,” Bost said.
That could not be further from the truth, MDOT’s new project manager, Russell Charette, said Tuesday. He said 3EIK-2, which would have cut through the mostly unpopulated center of Holden and was designated as the MDOT’s preferred route in 2003, was eliminated because of concerns about a “substantial environmental impact.”
The project cannot go forward without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, which requires that the least environmentally damaging option be used, Charette noted.
“We compare the various alternatives against one another,” Jay Clement, Army Corps permit project manager, said Thursday. “The 3EIK had very, very high environmental impacts and we had a tough time accepting that was going to be the least environmentally damaging option for the project.”
When Holden residents who live on Route 46, which is used by heavy trucks to connect from Route 9 to U.S. Route 1A, complained in 1996 about the doubling of traffic along their front yards, they asked that alternative routes be discussed.
A public advisory committee created in September 2000 reviewed more than 70 route choices to ease traffic in the Brewer-Eddington-Holden area and by 2008 had narrowed the list to two — 3EIK-2, the state’s former preferred choice, and 2B2, identified as Holden’s choice.
Raymond Faucher, a longtime MDOT project manager who is now retired, told Holden residents in 2005 that 3EIK-2 had the least amount of residential displacements compared with the other alternatives considered.
Brewer City Planner Linda Johns, who lives in Clifton and was the town’s representative on the public advisory committee, said this week that the countless hours local committee members spent working on the connector project over nearly 12 years have been ignored.
“I have been disappointed in the entire process of this project,” she said in a letter to Bost. “From the very beginning, the PAC members were asked to draw lines [potential routes] even before all the information was available, thus creating useless routes which were then slowly eliminated. From then on, I felt the PAC was only there to check a box on the checklist and that decisions were already made by DOT and other agencies.”
Johns continued: “It would be interesting to find out what happened over the past year and a half to make such a drastic change in preferred routes. If it was determined by state and federal agencies that undeveloped land and wildlife habitat needs to be preserved, then who is looking out for the people and their homes? I am all in favor of environmental concerns but there has to be a balance with people.”
Smith and Bost both said they strongly agree with Johns’ position. They said the fact that the state is not allowing public comments on its new preferred choice until the draft environmental impact statement is ready to be unveiled to the public sometime later this spring also troubles them.
“It is going to displace some and it’s going to take a lot of [other] people’s property,” Smith said. “That is why I am so surprised [by the state’s decision.] I didn’t know how they could do that on their own.”
This is typical of government. The so-called ‘environmental impact’ (see paragraphs 11-13 above) is more important than displacing people from their homes, all so that a few Canadian tourists won’t be inconvenienced. I smell pork.
I know a number of people who don’t smell pork,,,,they smell money. A fact is a fact, canadians bring a hell of a lot of buines here. Enviromental impact?, what do you think brings the tourists?, And let’s go ahead and destroy that.
Pork=pork barrel spending=greed=money… Never mind. The Canadians are still going to come whether the new corridor is built or not. I prefer they don’t build it, even though it won’t directly impact me. If they are going to do it, however, I’d rather they do it where there are no homes, only a few birds and trees to be displaced.
(Power lines)
I know what it means, I just disagree with you. Imagine that
What is ‘typical of government’ is that they have been working on this for 12 years (plus?) and nothing has been done. Well, except some studies.
See how many compaints there are, no one wants it in teir back yard. It is necessary and if it had been built 12 years ago, at a fraction of the price. It is the same tyoe of thing that happened to the road to connect Exxex in Bangor to Stillwater by the Mall. It would have made traffic by the Mall and down Broadway a lot better and safer. A few people were woried that it woudispalce some birds and leave them nowhere to go. Birds have wings, and there are a lot of them living in the swamps next to the interstate, the road should have been, and still should be built.
You have that one right. The environmentalists have pushed things so far that getting any important infrastructure built or repaired suffers years of delays at the very least. Not to mention the endless studies and wasted money.
Blame the environmentalists, sure… but the NIMBY’s who come from both sides – are equally or more to blame.
It has very little to do with birds but more to do with destruction of wetlands. For every acre of wetlands we damage or destroy we increase the likelihood of flooding and increased water pollution.
Enviromania is probably the biggest reason that I 95 hasn’t been extended to Madawaska.
This is symptomatic of why this country is failing and jobs are leaving.
Believe me – this new route is NOT for the Candaian tourist – its for the truck trafic coming from US into Canada and all the truck trafic coming back from Canada full of products for US markets!
This is part of Maine being “open for business…”
Exactly so.
The army corp of engineers gave the okay for a new bridge between the US and Canada on a winding route through a federal wildlife refuge instead of taking the most direct, least impact route. They certainly weren’t concerned about environmental impact. Several homes were removed that are ‘far’ from the road? What a waste of money. The army corp of engineers is a subject to pressure from special interest groups as well as any other entity.
Are people still rehashing the new bridge in Calais! I’m sorry, but Route 1 from the Big Stop to the Rotary is anything but winding… And I wouldn’t be surprised that in another 10 – 20 years, the bridge will connect to a four lane that is going to shoot out across open country to connect to either 395 or 95. Why they are playing with this little connector on the end of 395 is surprising, as the big picture is connecting a 4 lane highway from Bangor to Calais, to connect to the 4 lane that the Canadians are building that runs all the way to Halifax. From Newport, it can than shoot west across the state with a spur of limited access highway to Coburn Gore. I can’t imagine the Canadians have invested substantial amounts of money to build a 4 lane to be funneled onto Route 9…
The MDOT and Army Corp doesn’t care about displacing people….They will keep making up excuses, they will do what they want. They will take peoples property by “eminent domain”. I am sure they did not think once about homeowners…Typical State. Environmental impact?…ya one frog.
They usually buy the property, and in this market I’m sure a few people will be quite pleased.
actually they pay market value and with the market down ALL these people will get bent over.
ah very true. I posted this reply before actually looking at the route on google satellite. no homes to take.
They pay crap.
Remember “BOHICA”. Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
Who’s brother in law is in charge of this project ?
Follow the money.
Please , fill us in !
Would you think, for a minute, that perhaps the state , prior to changing their plans…would let the affected people know?
Nope because that would be civil and practicable……
Enviroterrorism is killing this state, and this country.
Pure hyperbole; care to back up that argument with citations and analysis?
None needed, when the evidence is before your eyes daily.
Just what I thought, no evidence to present.
As long as you refuse to look, you will never see.
Still no evidence to show because you are the one who refuses to see but instead believes wha the is told to believe
I’ve been living and working this State and other for the last 30 years. I’m note being told anything, I can see it happening and the only people who can’t seem to see it are the ones that are causing it.
Well, prove the opposite. They are creating a huge problem for us.
Who recently bought any undervalued, undeveloped land near this new route ?
We are talking Brewer after all.
calling cal ????
Feel free to use Google maps (satellite) to find Levenseller rd (as a reference) and note the power lines there already where 2B2 would run. Bury the power lines, put road there. Done.
No homes taken.
If they protecting wetlands over people’s homes that is shameful.
Until you pollute the wetlands around people’s home and their water is unusable. There has to be a balance.
For every acre of wetlands we damage or destroy we increase the likelihood of flooding and increased water pollution. We have learned the hard way that wetlands need to be protected for teh well being of both humans and animals.
If we were talking about NY City or LA you’d have a good point because they have such a large amount of impervious areas, but we’re not, we’re talking about Maine, which is not highly developed and never will be. I used to buy the argument that wetlands filtered water to prevent pollution, but I have come to believe that all undeveloped land acts as a water filter. Where do you think the best spring water comes from? Usually sand and gravel aquifers, not swamps. In fact wetlands often create a perched water table because the water can’t penetate the clay beneath, so how can it truly act as a good filter?
Wetlands not only filter and purify water but act like sponges and slow rainfall and snowfall run off decrease the frequency and severity of flooding. That is why built up areas flood easier than rural areas, the water has no where to accumulate without wetlands and thus cause flooding.
Swamps are not the only type of wetlands. There are literally 100’s of different types of wetlands, including areas that feed sand and gravel aquifers
why does it need to be a 4 lane road. A 2 lane road that could be widen later if need would be good enough and save alot of tax dollars. Its odd that dirgo drive in brewer got built a while back and this route has been talked about for a long time with no action.
It needs to be a 4 lane divided highway because this is the 21st century. Rt. 9 needs to be a 4 lane divided highway for the same reason. I doubt that I’ll live long enough to see that but it would be one thing to give a boost to the economy of downeast Maine.
Totally agree…Some places its hard to pass the slow poke….
I have followed this project from day 1, and it is a 2 lane highway for now. they are planning to take land for the future expansion; take for 4 lanes, build 2. There has been more than a dozen different routes studied over the years.
Mushroom farming — keep ’em in the dark and feed ’em horse . . . manure.
What’s the point of owning property when the government can just come in and take it? Just because they have to pay ‘fair market value’ doesn’t make any of this right! You can’t pay for the ancestry that may be tied to a piece of property. You can’t pay for the sweat and blood someone puts into their home, nor the memories that were made there. I don’t care what anyone says, eminent domain is a dangerous tool the government keeps in their back pocket for use when it wants to generate income.
Isn’t there already enough New Brunswick traffic clogging up Eastern Maine?
If you sincerely believe there is traffic, Canadian or otherwise, “clogging up” eastern Maine, I can only say I hope you never find yourself anywhere with actual traffic. The shock might be too much for you. :)
the traffic is already going that way, the problem is Rte 46 is a bumpy, windy, mostly residential road. the heavy truck use is incompatible with the residential use of that road.
Not really, rt 9 is full of cars from Maine – In the summer time a few more NB,NS,PEI, ONT NFl, QUE cars use the route – but its in such teriable shape compared to the 4 lane hwy Cananda has built all at NO tax payer expense – they totally paid for as they built the 400+ mile hwy for all the Canadians and americans that travel it. Now that is an example we should all follow!
Ah, how was it at no taxpayer expense? Where do you think the Canadian government got the money…
Do you know how the system is set up in Canada? The hwy was paid with tax money brought in, all with NO loans – no burned on our children exept the upkeep of the highway. Unlike what we do in america – make a loan for everything – that is the bigest downfall of the US versus other nations that pay for thigs as they have money. In Canada – education, health and many other dept’s cannot run a deficit – unlike america – people need to take sometime and learn that america is not as great as it could be if we just followed a few examples from our great neighbours.
…you forgot to add spending a lot o f money at our businesses.
I friend who is a manager of a store at Bangor Mall told me that shoppers from Canada gave his store better Christmas revenues. The come here and stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, purchase fuel, shop and recreate. I will take that clog any day if it helps Maine’s economy.
Take a joke guys and gals.
Yahoo, its about time.
A Republican administration that cares about the environment??? Give me a break. This is about money. The LePage administration cares only about the 1% and will bend over backwards, and frontwards, to accommodate commercial interests.
Must be gettin cold out there in your tent.
The MDOT is trying to justify how much the State needs them and all their employee’s. Build more roads so we can hire more people and request more tax payer money to take care of roads we can’t keep up with now. This is the government way. When lay off’s are forced the higher ups keep their jobs and the new people on the bottom go.
Let’s see, shorter route, no stop and go traffic, saves fuel, less pollution. Keeping 18 wheelers on the interstate instead of through downtown Brewer, safety. In fact, a lot less of all traffic through Brewer, I would love to bypass Main St. Safety, but loss of revenue for Brewer with less speeding tickets. Yes, it will go through some people’s property, how do you think roads get built? We also should have an east-west highway and the cargo port shot down by environmentalists. Cargo ports bring jobs and lower transportation costs for goods. They never brough up how much less pollution there would be from less trucks coming up the interstate. You can’t make everyone happy, sometimes you have to do things for the greater good. Similar to the Bangor Councilor that tried to derail the Waterfront Concerts that most of the people in Bangor support. 20 people out of a city of over 30,000 complain, and he takes their side.
Alright,alright…I’ll be the first.
It HAS to be Lepage’s fault (some stink’n, smoke-filled, basement annex of the Blaine House,with an old suitcase full of maple money).
FYI – The preferred route for Holden residents was no road at all.
That’s a great idea ! How about a tunnel.
Nobody said the MDOT was run by smart people. They would rather displace people the wildlife. Common sense doesnt run very deep in Augusta.
So now the trafffic is going to be going through the middle of Eddington?,where does it hook on on rt 9? looks like its way down by that y to 178,eddington cops will have a field day by the school and lots of them will still use 46 and go to Ellsworth anyway ,btw, screw Holden residents ,bunch of elitists anyway. would have been better to hook on down closer to 46 avoid Eddington.
The intersection of Rt. 9 and Rt. 178 is to the left of the purple route at the top. It looks to me like I-395 will intersect with Rt. 9 at about where the fire station/town office is. Just my opinion.
“It is going to displace some and it’s going to take a lot of [other] people’s property,” Smith said. “That is why I am so surprised [by the state’s decision.] I didn’t know how they could do that on their own.”
It’s called eminent domain.
What I find very interesting is that NONE of the new proposed routes are NEW at all, and yet we complain that they came up with something new and blindsided us. All 3 routes were in the newsletter in 2008 and is posted on the website. See for yourself at http://www.i395-rt9-study.com/Pubs/Newsletter1108.pdf . 2B-2 is there, 5B2B-2 is 5B2E3K route using the Purple line to connect to the existing 395 where 2B-2 would also start, and 5A2B-2 is just the part of 5A2E3K that would then connect back to 2B-2. It is all there in color for you.
This does not mean I feel the state (or whomever) had any wrong here. The really should have notified the communities effected of their updated narrowed field of choices so that they could alert all that could be effected by this decision. But instead they did nothing and let everyone find out on their own, or through people that were getting upset. Thus creating this OMG we did not know effect.
Yes these routes effect more people, and less of the environment, and yes people are upset now, and I am sure more will be. This will not rest until the road is completed, or abandoned forever, and I do not see the project being abandoned. In the end I hope that all parties can come to some kind of agreement and the ones effected are compensated fairly unlike a restaurant that use to stand near the Penobscot Narrows.
The fact is… There is a local committe already formed consisting of representitives from the affected towns. The (PAC) committee should have been notified when the prefered corridor changed.
The PAC Committee was disbanded by Commissioner David Cole.
So anyone that blames the current sitting Governor for this change now needs to apologize for making this a Rep/Dem thing.
Look again at the map in the 2008 newsletter and the current map from
the study site – 2B-2 is the same, but the other two routes are new.
Note how they connect in the north. 2B-2 connects directly to route 9 in Eddington at
Meadow Brook. The other two routes were a complete connector to a point
east of route46 at the Clifton line as shown in the newsletter. Those two routes are now
different – they also connect now to route 9 in Eddington at Meadow Brook. 5A2B-2 is now pretty much 2B-2 except for how it connects to I395 in the south. The other route is now called 5B2B-2. Alternative 2B-2 requires a complete rebuild of 4.5 miles of route 9. That 4.5 mile section is where the most impacts will occur.
nobuild,
I have looked at the maps as close as I can, and just looked at them again… I stand by what I said. 5B2B-2 is 5B2E3K route using the PURPLE line to connect to the existing 395 where 2B-2 would also start. Then stay with the darker yellow (or orange line) and it is the same. Same goes for 5A2B-2. It is just the part of 5A2E3K that would then connect back to 2B-2 using the first PURPLE line.
It is much simpler. Holden slipped a bigger envelope of $100’s to the DOT members than Brewer did. Nothing to do with number of people displaced, nothing to do with environment. Pure and simple GRAFT
Simply rebuilding Rt. 46 has always been the most logical and least expensive solution to the problem. The traffic is already there and has been for 20 or 30 years now.
But like most anything proposed these days a small group of NIMBY’s and
BANANA’s raised he11 and no one has the guts to stand up to them and
tell them to quit whining and accept the reality of what is already
there. In this case the traffic is already there.
Instead we will spend millions more on another completely new road and directly affect even more people.
Wait and see if after this new connector road is built if the residents
of Rt 46 do not then whine about the condition of their “residential”
road and demand the state improve it.
I’ve always had a problem with having such heavy truck traffic on a road that has a school with buses coming and going.
In the 50s I 95 went right through the Catholic Cemetary in Bangor. No matter where this highway goes I doubt anyone will be as upset as some of those loved ones were.
This is just a thought but if the idea is to connect people coming off Rt 9 to the interstate, why connect to 395 instead of 95? Just build a bridge across the river from Rt 9 to where the Hogan Rd intersects with State St. Straighter route for Candadians headed to the mall and I would think a shorter distance to go hook big trucks up to the interstate. Then they can go North or South from there.
Good point, years ago a good many state and local officials thought Bangor’s third bridge would be located as you suggest.At the time most of the land on the Brewer side was vacant The issue would be the large trucks.
STOP making sense!
This is what I have been saying for years. It would displace the fewest and the cost couldnt be that much more.
The reason for this is to get the trucks off the residential road. Running them through the middle of Eddington on Rt 9 through the most populated residential section is what they are trying to avoid. Read the whole article.
Both Rosens are in the dark about most things. Husband and wife do littles.
This has EMMC written all over it!!! If they would just pay everyone $90K per year then we could rely on unicorns to usher traffic over the area on magic clouds and rainbows.
(Yeah. I’m kidding.)
Something needs to be done, someone will whine but it needs to be done none the less.
The hill in Brewer is one of the most dangerous places in the state that trucks must deal with. It is a miracle someone has not been killed there when a driver that is unfamilier with the death trap stops in the middle of the hill for the light. All it would take is a driveline failure to have that truck roll back onto a car. I used to stop at the bottom with my 4-ways on if I was loaded and wait for a green light up top, it’s the only safe way to deal with it.
Not to mention the dangers of Route 46, thru-trucks have no business on that cow path.
We need trucks, they are here to stay. Let’s all get together and build safe passage for them instead of going to “Nimbyville”….
http://www.i395-rt9-study.com/Pubs/PAC041509.pdf
Allthough this is the “state government” over reaching and doing things with out any input from the community, just wait until Obama care gets its teeth into your lives.
It is not a state issue it is a federal issue. The state needs the blessing from the feds on most projects or the projects don’t happen. Mr. Perry, of all people you should know this.
People, can we stop with the circular argument of what political party is better? They both have been hi-jacked by the far left and far right. If you don’t think the Dems love bending over backwards for the 1% just as much as the Rep then you are clueless and have your head up your arse. I love how “Moderate” has become a negative when fact is most people are in fact moderates. The people who are far to the left and far to the right are simply supporting the most corrupt minority of each party. I wish somebody like Romney (who I don’t believe is the end all be all or even my flavor of…..well beer in my case) would embrace the fact that he is a moderate, instead he tries to come off as a hard line conservative. Most Americans could care less about abortion (I think it’s awful, especially late term), but that is not a reason for me to or not to vote for a politician. I also like many Americans could care less what your religous views are (minus extreme nut bag views). Anybody who thinks Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich are the people who speak for the majority of Americans, well you are nuts. I could go on and on how some people on this board argue for one point and then in another story completely discount their previous point of view in another article……….See anything to do with Plum Creek and Roxeanne Quimby.
For people who like Google maps, why not draw a line from Calais to I-95 straight east to west. That would put a road well north of Old Town, avoiding Holden, Eddington, and Brewer. Also, the satellite images on Google maps are a few years old and do not show houses built in the last few years that are in the path of the proposed road. Why connect to old 2-lane highways when you could build new 4- lane highways.
All Mardens locations are convenient to I-95 (except for Ellsworth location). Why not connect Canada to I-95 halfway between the Brewer and the Lincoln stores.
This is a classic example as to why an east west route that connects to I 95 would be a much better project all the way around. Sometimes money is better spent for the betterment of all instead of just a box of bandaids.
That map is very difficult to follow. They were trying to show multiple variations of the routes.
Look at the map titled “Range of Alternatives Currently Being Considered” from 4/15/2009:
http://www.i395-rt9-study.com/Pubs/handouts041509.pdf
and then compare to the current map:
http://www.i395-rt9-study.com/Pubs/alts.pdf
Get the truck traffic away from residences & businesses. If people realized what was in those trucks, they wouldn’t sleep at night. While one may be safe enough if the wrong 2 trucks come together at the wrong place, enviromental impact would take on a whole new meaning.
We haul a 5th wheel RV across #46 often and it certainly isn’t built for the traffic it gets. Truck drivers used to be the best drivers on the road but I’m not sure that is still the case. The sure it’s done the better for everyone.
WHOOPS! Better ask our Canadian friends what they want to do. With this new route they’ll hit 95 and go south…Good-bye Bangor Mall ; )
I travel the 9/46 route daily. Back in ’96 when this began, there WAS an issue. Now, instead of focusing on a comparatively unused road, how about we spend some time building something MUCH more important…. The economy!
It is sad to have a Commercial Motor Vehicle enforcement officer APOLOGIZE to you at a Mopang roadside inspection because he has to show he has done something, because I was the first truck to come along in 45 minutes. 9 used to see a steady flow of trucks, now there are days when I might meet 10 the entire 87 miles.
Sad times indeed.
The map doesn’t show the other route, 3-EIK-2 and 5-B2b2 which is shown is not referred to in the article.
If the town managers had looked on the I-395/rt.9 web site they would have known about the change several months ago.Maybe they weren’t interested because it wasen’t going to effect their property.I am very pleased about the change,now it won’t go through my house and I won’t be ripped off by eminent domain.
Environmentalists win again over the rock solid interests of two impacted communities. Army Corps is just following the rules. Kind of a dumb thing, like abandoning the Wiscasset by-pass because eagles periodically have used a nest within some 600′ of the planned route. Someone ought to have just cut down the tree in the winter. Guess what, the eagles would nest somewhere else. Not so easy for the displaced residents impacted here.