Four communities and state highway officials are collaborating on a $1 million study to improve transportation between South Portland and Gorham.
“It’s as bad as any place in the state,” Gorham Town Councilor Burleigh Loveitt said of the congestion on roads in the region.
The committee will consider solutions to alleviate the problems, including road improvements, bus transportation, rail service, bike routes, walking paths and a spur connecting the turnpike to the Gorham bypass, which opened in December after decades of study.
The Cumberland County East-West Corridor Study was authorized by the Legislature and signed by Gov. John Baldacci in 2007. Gorham, Scarborough, South Portland and Westbrook last year passed resolutions asking the Maine Turnpike Authority and Maine Department of Transportation to undertake the study.
“It’s a very comprehensive study,” said Sarah Devlin, the project manager for the study, who works in the government relations office at the Maine Turnpike Authority.
The study got underway at 1 p.m. on Tuesday at 430 Riverside St. in Portland. Devlin said Wednesday the next meeting would likely be at the end of March.
Those attending the intial meeting included Gorham Town Manager David Cole, Loveitt, Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall, Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon and Westbrook City Engineer Eric Dudley. South Portland officials couldn’t attend because of a scheduling conflict, according to Devlin.
“We need a modern transportation system,” Cole said in an interview.
Dudley identified several areas in Westbrook as traffic problems, including Main Street, William Clarke Drive and Route 302, which he said is “really busy” in the summer. He said part of the study’s goal is to alleviate traffic congestion in Gorham and Westbrook along with concerns about sprawl.
Dudley said a turnpike spur or an east-west connector to the Gorham bypass would ease traffic on Route 25, which runs through Westbrook.
“It would help all of us,” Dudley said.
According to the Maine Turnpike Authority, goals of the study would be to improve public safety, relieve traffic congestion and improve access to the turnpike, Interstate 295, the Portland International Jetport and other facilities in Greater Portland.
The study committee will include Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS), a metropolitan planning organization for the Portland area.
Loveitt identified Route 22 – the road used by those traveling to the Maine Mall and jobs in South Portland – as a heavily traveled road. Its traffic also affects Buxton, Hollis and Standish.
John Duncan, director of PACTS, said recently a toll road to Gorham is part of a 20-year plan at PACTS but needed further study.
“If they do something in the future, it has to be cost effective,” Robinson said.
Maine Turnpike Authority will pay for 80 percent of the study cost and has budgeted $750,000 with the Maine Department of Transportation contributing $187,500 for a total of $937,500.
Turnpike Authority Executive Director Paul Violette said the Turnpike Authority would provide study money and expertise, but he said the study must be driven by the communities that will be most affected by it.
Violette said the study would start from scratch without preconceptions. “This will be a comprehensive and wide-ranging study of alternatives aimed at easing congestion and preserving the character of these communities,” Violette said.
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