It’s every commuter’s nightmare. Getting out of work for the day, trying to rush home to get dinner on the table, to get kids to practice or, perhaps, just catch a movie after work. And instead of driving, you’re sitting in an endless line of traffic.
This is a typical commute for drivers in big cities like Boston, where despite the massive “Big Dig” highway reconstruction project, drivers routinely sit in traffic jams that back up traffic for miles.
However, more and more, this is becoming the norm for drivers on roads in Maine, where a steadily increasing population has begun to choke the smaller state highways during rush hour.
Gorham in particular is feeling the traffic pinch. For years, traffic through Gorham Village has been slowed to a crawl during the morning and afternoon commute, raising the blood pressure of drivers in concert with their increasing travel times.
There is, however, some hope in sight. The long-delayed Gorham bypass promises to ease some of the congestion going through Gorham Village.
But, the bypass is not a panacea to cure all of Gorham’s traffic problems. In fact, what has been lost in all of the talk about the Gorham bypass is that traffic is South Gorham has been growing steadily worse, with no relief in sight.
Unlike the bypass, which will be mostly paid for with federal money, the town has had no luck finding money to fix problems in South Gorham.
The traffic is especially bad near the intersections of South Street and County Road, where two state highways meet at an intersection that can’t handle the amount of traffic trying to use it.
Residents in the area are sick of trying to negotiate the daily traffic jams. “Everyone in this neighborhood has trouble pulling out of driveways,” said Audrey Gerry of South Street.
The town has proposed improvements for that intersection, including widening the road to three lanes at the intersection of County Road and South Street. The problem is there is no government money available for the project.
And it’s not just Gorham scrambling for money. In fact, John Duncan, director of the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee, also known as PACTS, has said the greater Portland area would require about $1 billion for highway improvements over the next 20 years. However, Duncan said PACTS expects to be well short of that figure – a half a billion short, to be exact.
With such a shortfall, towns have been left with a difficult decision – do nothing or use local money for expensive road projects that affect drivers everywhere.
Gorham has tried to find a creative solution to fix the problems. It has asked local businessman Hans Hansen to pay to upgrade the intersection of South Street and County Road in front of his business as a condition of approval for a $4 million commercial development he is looking to build next to his farm market at an estimated cost of up to $200,000.
Not surprisingly, Hansen doesn’t think he should have to pay the bulk of the costs of repairing the intersection. “Any business should only have to pay for their fair share,” he said.
And he’s right. He shouldn’t have to pay for all of the improvements. But Hansen’s project will certainly bring some additional traffic to the area, and he should pay some of the cost to improve the road.
In fact, one possible solution is for the town to require any developer proposing a project that will bring more traffic to the area to pay towards improving infrastructure improvements.
This way, Gorham could ensure that developers proposing commercial, retail or housing developments are paying their fair share of the cost to keep traffic flowing in town.
The town could also enlist the help of agencies such as PACTS to help create regional solutions with other surrounding towns and cities such as a South Gorham bypass or a spur off the Maine Turnpike. These larger regional projects are the ones that are more likely to be paid for with state and federal money.
After all, the problems in South Gorham aren’t just affecting Gorham residents, they are affecting drivers throughout the region as they pass through Gorham on their way to Westbrook, the Maine Mall, Portland and beyond.
The traffic is only going to get worse, it needs to be fixed now before the whole region is in gridlock.
Mike Higgins, assistant editor
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