BREWER, Maine — It will be months before public comments about the proposed Interstate 395-Route 9 connector are summarized and addressed, but it’s already clear that some residents have strong opinions about what should happen, one federal official said.
“It was a pretty telling information,” Jay Clement, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit project manager, said last week about the public comments received. “A lot of folks would sooner rather have nothing than what is on the table, or would rather have the east-west highway run its course before any decisions are made.”
Peter Vigue, chairman and CEO of Cianbro Corp., has spent the last couple years speaking all around the state and Canada about a privately funded east-west highway, which gained state funding for a $300,000 feasibility study in April.
The concept proposed by Vigue calls for a 220-mile toll highway that starts in Calais, follows the Stud Mill Road to Costigan, crosses the Penobscot River, and meanders over to The Forks before connecting to Route 27 and the Canadian border.
“That route is not etched in stone,” Ted Talbot, spokesman for the Maine DOT, has said.
The Maine Department of Transportation and the Army Corps held a public hearing about the I-395-Route 9 connector — designed to ease traffic between the Canadian Maritimes and the federal highway system — in Eddington on May 16. Both agencies concluded their open public comment periods at the end of May.
Maine DOT has published the hearing transcript from the mid-May meeting, and those comments will be summarized with others received by mail and email and addressed before being presented to the Federal Highway Administration later this year, Talbot said. The FHA would pay for the road construction project, if approved.
“There is a 6- to 8-month gap here before the final EIS” or environmental impact statement, is published, Talbot said.
The DOT selected 2B-2 as its preferred route in October, abandoning a route selected in 2003 — and supported by both Brewer and Eddington — because of protected waterways identified, the project’s website states. 2B-2 would extend I-395 at its Wilson Street junction and would roughly follow the Holden-Brewer line until entering Eddington and connecting with Route 9.
The state’s former preferred route, which basically cut through the center of Holden, would cause a significant environmental impact to around 90 protected vernal pools, at least 28 considered significant vernal pools, and 2B-2 would affect around 11 vernal pools with only two listed as significant, a map on the project’s website states.
2B-2 “best satisfies the study purpose and need, has the fewest adverse impacts on environmental resources, and has the lowest cost estimate of the alternatives,” the website states.
The two other alternatives — 5A2B-2 and 5B2B-2 — both are similar to 2B-2 but start or end at different locations, and a “no build” alternative also is under consideration.
Maine DOT has requested a planning application permit from the Army Corps to fill in wetlands affected by construction of the two-lane, limited-access highway to ease traffic in the Eddington-Holden-Brewer area, Clement said. The Army Corps will soon determine the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative, or LEDPA, from the four alternatives.
“Midsummer is when we would target our decision on our LEDPA,” Clement said.
“It is anticipated that … alternative 2B-2 will be the LEDPA,” the project website states.
The debate over the connector route has been going on since 2000. When I-395 was extended to Brewer and the Veterans Memorial Bridge was constructed, much of the truck traffic that had used Route 9 in Eddington to connect from Canada to Brewer started using Route 46 as a connector, which prompted residents to request that an alternative route be built.
Even though the project has been in the works for years, “there is still a great deal of work involved in design, funding, mitigation” to be done, Clement said. “Right now, the project is not funded.”
The benefit is all for Canada not Maine. Why isn’t Canada paying for it ?
They stimulate our economy year in and year out, don’t you see the number of Canadians on our roadways? We can’t ask the Canadians to pay for something like this. If we drive them away, Maine will become a ghost town, but we will still be open for business!
The Army Corp is a bunch of crap…they built a USA Customs building thats got major structural problems and send traffic thru a Game refuge whenit should have been built as an extension of Rt 9. Hardly anyone uses it, for several reasons. Its who you know and a hand full of politically connected pocket lining jerks that get their way….as always.
Given the last decade of growth that the Bangor area has witnessed it does make sense to build this extension now before it becomes much more difficult & costly to do. Portland suburbs are struggling with traffic mightly as the bedroom communities are connected by completely inadequate roads for the volume. Most of the growth in the Bangor area has been on the west side of the Penobscot (Hampden/ Hermon/ Glenburn/ Orono) however Orrington/ Holden and Eddington are poised to grow pretty rapidly and need a better means to access the interstate system.
Two words:
Public. Transportation.
Correction – the public hearing was May 2nd. Written public comments were received until May 15th for MDOT and May 17th for ACOE.
The other side of the story here, of what was “telling”, was how many of us spent hours upon hours doing research, making FOAA requests, and putting together logical and well-thought-out statements using the agencies’ own words from various documents to point out the inconsistencies in their process along the way. 2B-2 does NOT meet the study purpose and need, as the agencies themselves threw out this route previously. I still have not received an answer as to why or how it now magically does meet purpose and need. Finding vernal pools on the other route does not suddenly make 2B-2 viable if it still does not, by its own design, meet four out of five study criteria.
Since we only have so much money would it not be better to invest in rail service from Bangor to Boston ? This makes much more sense to me.
Let me suggest again that it might make more sense to bypass 395 entirely and put a bridge across the Penobscot between the foot of Hogan Road and Route 9 opposite. That would connect Route 9 with the Interstate via the Hogan Road interchange, with a minimum of road building and property displacement.
I have been saying the same thing for years. This has the least amount of impact on the enviroment as well as people. Extending 395 is a waste of money and has been a waste of time.
While it sounds good in theory, there may be other factors at play. Perhaps more bridge pylons in that area would be detrimental to ice flows or navigation on the Penobscot. There are already four bridges crossing the penobscot near bangor.
Also, that area you mentioned is one of the widest points of the river in this area. It’s also next to the old Bangor Dam. The river runs very fast through that area. It may be costly to build across a larger expanse in that kind of water than to simply build a road extension.
That could easily be so, but I’d like to see the planners identify those ‘other factors’, just so we can be sure they looked at the possibility.
Canadians are cheap, they only come here to buy things from our big box stores. Furthermore, when they go out to eat they’re notorious for being poor tippers – no where close to the standerd 20% and they love dumping their Canadian change. AND they can’t drive!As for the highways, they’re just looking for shortcuts in moving goods through our state.
But if that means a thousand bigrigs come through a year, that’s a thousand drivers that need snacks or fuel along the way. And that’s not to mention the average traffic from NB to Montreal. I have a few friends in Fredericton, and they have to drive all the way around the state just to go west in Canada. Have’em come through our state and spend a little money along the way.
WHat was the count on how many home owners would be affected by this change. More than the vernal(mud puddles) pools I’m sure.
I am all for growth but when a lot of roads need attention would it not be better to spend this money upgrading the roads that are barely holding up in this economy instead of building new ones and watching them get as bad as others are?
Why are we always wanting to take more of, “the peoples land” private and public for roads? We can’t even take care of the ones we have now.!. Oh wait, maybe the plan is to have them all turn back to dirt… might as well. See ya’ all on the road i guess in my 4X4 that I’ll have to go out and buy soon. Bouncy bounce thru the potholes… Yee-haw!
dammed if we do, dammed if we dont.
Lets TUNNEL!!!!
No build! And, no east-west highway either! That just puts all these problems you folks are facing into the hands of a bunch of other small towns. Roads suck life out of a place. They encourage us to travel all over the place to get our needs met, instead of focusing right here in our communities. With no new roads, which is inevitable over time as fuel costs rise, we will spend more time putting intention and goodness into our families, our towns, and our land. Sure we need to be able to travel sometimes, but making that more convenient than walking down the road to a local business makes no sense, in my opinion.