3 min read

PORTLAND — With little fanfare or discussion, the Maine Turnpike Authority board of directors Thursday paved the way for a new turnpike toll plaza in York 1.5 miles north of the current plaza.

The unanimous vote of the board sets in motion a state and federal permitting process, the next step toward actual construction. MTA director Peter Mills said if everything goes smoothly, work would begin on the new plaza in 2017. The plaza will have cash booths and open-road tolling.

But the town of York and the citizens group Think Again intend to have something to say about that as they mount a legal fund to fight relocation of the plaza — a fight that has the support of York’s legislative delegation. They argue the E-ZPass system will make cash obsolete within five to 10 years, and that the site selected by the MTA has environmental implications and abutter disruption.

Freeman Goodrich, the York County representative to the MTA board, made the motion to accept the mile 8.8 location, 1.5 miles north of the current plaza. Goodrich referenced “exhaustive studies” conducted over the past several years by MTA consultants regarding all-electronic tolling as well as suitability of building at the current site versus elsewhere on the turnpike in York.

He called the current plaza “dated and technologically challenged,” a theme brought up by other board members.

Vice chairman James Cloutier said the board typically looks at three factors when making a decision: environmental impact, engineering and safety and cost. He said he personally would not let cost become a deciding factor, all things being equal, given the opposition to the new location by York residents. Initial studies pegged the difference between building a plaza at the existing location and at mile 8.8 as $20 million.

Advertisement

“But there’s a strong technical case for the 8.8 location. At least from what we know now, it’s the least objectionable environmentally” and it’s a safer location than the current plaza, Cloutier said. “If these were not separated by such a wide margin in terms of functionality and environmental impact, I’m sure I’d be putting a lot more emphasis on local reaction.”

Chairman Daniel Wathen concurred. “If this were a close call, the cost differential wouldn’t influence me at all. In my judgment, it’s not a close call. In most respects, 8.8 is the superior site.”

Think Again member Joan Jarvis, who attended the meeting with husband Marshall and fellow member Dick Bilden, said they expected this outcome. “But in our opinion, the decision has been based on false, inaccurate and incomplete information,” she said.

She cites potentially devastating financial impacts on the nearby Whippoorwill subdivision if the plaza is built at mile 8.8, saying 90 percent of the houses are within half a mile of the site. “To say there’s low abutter impact” as the MTA staff has claimed, “is just wrong.”

The group has started a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for the town to hire a lawyer, in anticipation of a request for additional funding from taxpayers next May. Think Again has already shifted its focus to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which have to sign off on the project.

Mills said later the board’s vote allows the staff to proceed in a more intensive way with designing the plaza. The design is roughly 15 percent complete and will need to be about 30 percent complete before the Army Corps and MDEP will act to permit the project.

“Right now, we took a footprint of the plaza and plopped it down in four or five locations,” he said. “Now we get a little more involved. It’s like getting a suit fitted. You’ve taken the suit off the rack and how it’s time to do a little tailoring.”

He said the MTA has already been seeking input from both agencies and so far, neither has raised serious issues with the mile 8.8 site. He said work on the design will continue throughout the winter. If everything were to go smoothly, he said he anticipates permits in hand by June.

Comments are no longer available on this story