Mixing with bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic, big trucks belch diesel smoke and fold like jackknives, as they cut through the intersection in Gorham Village.

Rush hour in Gorham is a daily frustration for motorists sitting in traffic and a safety hazard, as nearly 40,000 cars and trucks a day drive through town where routes 114 and 25 converge. But $15.7 million approved by Congress last week for a Gorham Bypass could end a half-century of frustrations and fears. Congress earmarked the money in a federal transportation bill that now lacks only the signature of President George W. Bush.

Although a bypass, stalled for decades by a lack of funding, inches closer, many in Gorham remain skeptical about whether it will become a reality.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Matt Mattingly, who owns PineCrest Bed and Breakfast on South Street. “We should have traffic helicopters doing reports.”

Afternoon commuter traffic backs up a “whole mile” right in front of his business, making it difficult for his customers. Mattingly and his wife, Amy, took over the inn in July.

When they came, local talk of a bypass was discouraging. “They said ‘a bypass is coming but not in your lifetime,'” he said longtime residents told him.

The money approved by Congress last week would build a 3.3-mile southerly bypass of Gorham Village. It would link Route 114 (South Street) with Route 25 (Ossipee Trail) near Brandy Brook Hill, which is west of the village. GorhamTown Manager David Cole said the money wouldn’t include building a northerly route of the bypass.

Cole said there have been 16 major studies over the years for a bypass. He said a bypass showed up in a plan from 45 years ago. “I think we’re inching closer to actually driving out there,” he said.

But Gorham has had bypass hopes buoyed before only to experience disappointment. Cole understands cynicism in the community. “We’ll believe it when we see it or drive on it,” he said was the thinking of many residents around town.

Hearing news last week that Congress would likely pass the transportation bill, Burleigh Loveitt, chairman of the town council, was optimistic but cautious about celebrating too early. “When the President signs it, we’ll have a shindig,” Loveitt said.

Some daily commuters share the skepticism of Gorham people. Dave Brown of Limington was idling his pickup in traffic at 4 p.m. on Monday on South Street. “Unfortunately, no, I don’t think it will ever happen,” he said about a bypass.

“It’s every afternoon,” Brown said about the traffic snarl in Gorham.

The daily jam is frustrating for motorists. But traffic tie-ups cause more than tempers to boil over in Gorham. Mattingly helped a motorist get underway on Monday after a car overheated when it sat too long in the line of traffic, which stalled on South Street.

Tony Salamony, a UPS delivery driver, has been battling traffic in Gorham for 14 years and doesn’t know if a bypass is coming but said one is badly needed. “It’s ridiculous. There are more and more cars,” he said.

Meredith Young of Flaggy Meadow Farm doesn’t think President Bush will sign the bill. But part of the Youngs’ farm lies in the path of the proposed bypass. “Of course it’s upsetting,” she said. “It’s the wrong way to go.”

She believes that a more regional approach should be looked at with a spur coming off the turnpike and with a bypass skirting around Gorham and Buxton, not through the towns. “If you’re going to bypass us, do it right,” she said.

Doris Bridges of Gorham believes a bypass is needed and is coming. “From all I have heard and read, I believe it’ll be a reality,” she said. “They need to do something.”

Another Gorham resident, Christine Smith, said a bypass is necessary with the residential growth in Gorham in recent years. Smith, who commutes two days a week and knows what it’s like to sit in traffic, is also optimistic that a bypass will be built. “I think it will,” she said. “I’m hoping it happens.”

Cole said a study indicated that a majority of business people in downtown Gorham believed a bypass would lead to more customers in local shops and stores. Kevin Joyce, a regional manager for Amato’s Italian Sandwich Shops, said easing downtown traffic congestion would increase business in their Gorham shop. Now, customers, who are caught in traffic, are reluctant to stop. “It would definitely help us,” Joyce said.

Joyce of Standish, who was working in the Gorham Amato’s on Monday, is also a commuter and usually allows an extra half hour per trip. “You never know how bad it’s going to be,” he said about traffic troubles in Gorham.

With motorists dodging downtown Gorham, a bypass would eliminate traffic problems on some rural roads and residential streets. “A lot of us choose an alternate route,” said Julee Applegarth, a former Gorham resident now of Standish.

Like many others who live in the Gorham area, Applegarth is hoping for traffic relief and said the bypass would help. “I didn’t stay here to get stuck in traffic,” she said.

With many of the hundreds of trucks hauling gasoline, oil and hazardous material every day through the village, there are safety fears. A Gorham visitor, Sue Waltz of Kalkaska, Mich., saw the problem while dining at a window seat at the Gorham House of Pizza on Monday. “The semis were having problems maneuvering around the corner. Some had to stop and back up,” she said.

And the situation worries public officials. Cole said that the intersection was built for horses and buggies. He said some wheels on multiple axle trucks get dragged around the corner. “There’s a huge safety factor involved here,” Cole said.

Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said there isn’t a lot of turning radius for big trucks at the intersection and called the location dangerous. “There’s plenty of potential for a disaster,” Lefebvre said.

A few years ago, Gorham bought foam equipment, which would be utilized to battle hazardous material fires in case a truck overturned and caught fire. Two fire trucks were outfitted with the foam gear, costing $50,000 for each truck.

A bypass would reroute many trucks around Gorham village. “There’s no question it would remove a lot of potential problems,” Lefebvre said about a bypass.

Lefebvre is hopeful that a bypass will get built. But “we’re not going to wake up to it tomorrow,” he said.

Once money becomes available, Cole said construction would still be two to five years away. He said the state would have to acquire the land and a final design would be necessary.

Ray Faucher, the bypass project manager for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the bypass would have two 12-foot travel lanes and two eight-foot paved shoulders. He said the state would acquire enough land to allow for widening it to four lanes in the future.

Faucher said the bypass would be a limited access highway, disallowing driveways and other entrances. The bypass would intersect with numbered highways, routes 114, 202 and 25. A bypass would go over or under Flaggy Meadow Road.

Some land could be acquired for the northerly bypass route, if money was left over from building the first phase. “Our focus is the southwesterly component,” Faucher said.

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