March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

MDOT eyes avenues for enhancement > Budget includes creative transportation approaches

On any given month, dozens of trucks laden with rolled paper or pulp rumble through the streets of Eastport headed for the docks and ships that will take the Maine products to foreign shores, a situation that exemplifies both Maine’s economic wherewithall and missed opportunities.

Traffic at Maine’s three ports at Eastport, Portland and Searsport has grown, on average, by 8 percent each year for the past decade, and the Eastport facility can handle up to 200,000 tons per year, significantly more than the 60,000 tons that had been expected for the port when it was established more than a decade ago.

Besides the potential traffic hazards of running so many trucks through town — about 70 for each ship that docks — there are economic concerns. There is insufficient storage for the state’s needs, and state and port authorities have watched as business opportunities bypassed Eastport and Maine for better ports.

“We do not have world-class ports in Maine yet, but there have been increasing strides to get them here,” said Robert Elder, director of ports and marine transportation for the Maine Department of Transportation.

The Eastport cargo facility isn’t alone in needing a booster shot. Demand for Maine’s goods is on the rise, although much of the state’s transportation infrastructure — its highways, ports and rail service — aren’t up to snuff when it comes to the increasing pressures of international competition.

Improvements are needed in developing an east-west highway that has been debated for decades and would run from Canada, through Maine, on to the rest of New England and beyond. A third cargo port in the state, to be located on Sears Island, is nearing final federal approval, but only after 15 years and two other attempts for approval.

“There’s plenty of room for improvement,” said John Melrose, Maine’s commissioner of transportation. He pointed out that while Maine’s airports have gotten good grades and that Maine’s roads are at least on par or better than those in other states, its ports and rail systems haven’t fared as well.

In a effort to meet the state’s future needs, the MDOT released this spring the first two-year budget of a 20-year plan to rebuild the state’s roads, rails and ports. The 1996-97 Transportation Improvement Program calls for $294.2 million in funding, mostly federal dollars but including nearly $61 million in bonds to go before voters in November.

The improvement program marks an important departure from most of the state’s transportation policy in the past three decades. While highway and bridge construction and repair continues to account for the lion’s share of the budget, at three-quarters of the total, it doesn’t account for nearly as much as it did in the 1960s, when it reached levels of 98 percent, recalled Paul Minor, director of planning for the MDOT.

Spurred by 1991 state and federal mandates to promote alternate modes of transportation, the 1996-97 MDOT budget includes more than $75 million for creative ways of getting around. Local and state planners will be looking to develop greater use of mass transit systems and bike and pedestrian paths, which are only touched upon in this biennium budget.

Minor said the two-year budget and the MDOT’s 20-year plan strive toward creating an interlocking system between air, roads, ships and rail, adding greater flexibility and connections for businesses in a rural state like Maine, while potentially reducing the wear and tear on Maine’s roadways.

As part of the biennium budget, more than $6 million will be used to establish rail-to-truck connections in Presque Isle and in Fairfield, similar to the intermodal transfer center in Auburn. Another $624,000 will be used to expand park-and-ride facilities around the state to reduce the number of cars on the road. About $10 million would be used to repair railroad tracks between Portland and Boston to allow for passenger rail service into Maine.

Highway and bridge work, amounting to $218 million of the total $294 million, would include resurfacing of 415 miles of road and reconstruction of another 35 miles; replacement or rehabilitation of 62 bridges statewide; and 17 projects to reduce congestion or improve air quality.

The MDOT’s budget request is “a good step forward, but it’s not enough,” said Maria Fuentes, executive director of the Maine Better Transportation Association.

Over the years, funding for Maine’s highways has not kept pace with the need, and has been syphoned off to cover other state accounts like the Attorney General’s Office and state police, Fuentes said. Five years ago, 35 cents of every dollar spent on the federal and state highway fund went to capital improvements of Maine roads and bridges. This year, that dropped to 25 cents of every dollar.

A recent study by the MBTA found that while bridges have a life span of about 70 years, at the replacement rates seen between 1989 to 1993, it will take 168 years to replace all of Maine’s bridges just once. Based on the current budget, the MDOT would replace all bridges once in 118 years.

“We’re reaching a critical juncture,” Fuentes said. “We’re spending less money on capital improvements and it’s going to catch up with us, and it’s going to diminish the strength of our transportation infrastructure.”

But the improvements Melrose and Fuentes said are necessary come at a time when current federal funds — which can account for as much as 90 percent or more of any transportation project — are uncertain. Efforts in Congress to cut federal spending could mean reductions of up to $15 million for the state, as well as another $3.2 million reduction over the two years because the state has no mandatory seat belt laws.

Particularly worrisome, Melrose said, are suggestions in the U.S. Senate to eliminate funding for demonstration projects, funding used in Maine to build the Million Dollar Bridge in South Portland and bridges in Waterville and Topsham. Maine is now looking for $218 million in demonstration funds to help cover a $228 million project for a new bridge linking Bath with Woolwich, an important connection in midcoast Maine, he said.

Dana Connors, the transportation commissioner under Gov. John R. McKernan and now the president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that there is a strong link between economic development in a rural state like Maine and building up the state’s transportation infrastructure.

“To build success in the economy depends on the ability to move people and products safely, efficiently, timely, effectively, and that means investing in transportation,” Connors said.

Shipping figures prominently in the biennium budget, with the $18.7 million in state funding requested being second only to the nearly $35 million being requested for highway and bridge repairs.

Elder said increased support for Maine’s ports makes sense since shipping accounts for 98 percent of all trade in the world and is 20 times more efficient than road transportation and 10 times as efficient as rail.

“If there’s no state-of-the-art facility, you won’t be connected with the rest of the world,” he said.

As part of the transportation package next November, Maine residents will be asked to approve $13 million to expand Eastport’s cargo port, a move that would more than double the warehouse capacity and add a new marine terminal on Estes Head. Refrigeration and freezer storage areas would also be added, expanding the storage capabilities.

Port Director Jonathan Daniels said Maine blueberries, potatoes and cranberries currently headed for Canada bypass Eastport. Blueberries from Machias are sent to Halifax, where they are stored and then sent back to Maine for processing, only to be transported back to Halifax for shipment. That is a 1,400-mile journey that could be avoided with the new port on Estes Head, saving Maine producers time and money.

The MDOT plan also includes recommendations to conduct a study on adding a dock and other waterfront improvements in Bar Harbor and developing a ferry service between Lubec and Eastport.

Maine’s roadways also offer opportunities for export. Since the 1920s there has been serious talk of adding an east-west highway in the state, but costs then and now have proved too prohibitive, according to Minor. Now, the MDOT is proposing spending $10 million to beef up Route 9 from Bangor to Calais, the so-called Airline. Similar investments are also planned for Route 2 from Bangor to New Hampshire.

“Those roadways were never reconstructed to any modern standard; the grades are bad and the base isn’t there” to support heavier traffic. While transportation officials look to ameliorate the heavy traffic problems of Route 1, improved conditions on Routes 2 and 9 could expand commercial traffic, which currently accounts for about 20 percent of the vehicles on Route 9.

An advocate of increased long-term funding for transportation, Fuentes said Maine may have to expand current sources of funding or seek alternate sources. For example, she said, tolls on the interstate could be expanded to other roadways, or bikes could be registered and the fees used to support bike paths.

“If people want a good transportation system, we need to figure out a way to pay for it,” she said.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like