Toll plaza likely to stay in York
Engineers are expected to recommend possible sites after finding no suitable locations elsewhere.
By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer
November 3, 2009
Turnpike officials likely will recommend several sites for a new toll plaza, including the current location.
2008 Press Herald file
The engineers who are designing a new southern gateway toll plaza for the Maine Turnpike say it should be built in York.
Engineers from HNTB Corp. will present their recommendations for new tollbooths during a meeting with York residents and town and turnpike officials at 9 a.m. Thursday at the turnpike authority's headquarters in Portland.
The engineers are expected to recommend several locations, including the present site of the York toll plaza, which would be rebuilt. Residents have said they will fight any proposal to build a plaza elsewhere in York.
HNTB was directed to re-examine 16 previously identified locations in York, Wells, Ogunquit and Kittery, after York residents protested a plan that would have put the plaza elsewhere in York and required the seizure of as many as eight homes.
"The engineers said no other sites had emerged and they will probably be recommending two to four sites as well as the existing location," said Dan Paradee, the turnpike authority's spokesman.
Residents and selectmen have pushed to keep the toll plaza at mile marker 7. After more study, engineers agreed that would be possible with the use of high-speed toll collection technology.
Work on a new toll plaza began in 2005, after officials concluded that the current site – at the bottom of a hill, on a curve, in wetlands and at a busy interchange – isn't ideal.
The plaza, built in 1969, is 16 years beyond its intended life span, say turnpike officials. It collected about 37 percent of the $83.4 million in tolls that drivers paid last year at 19 stations along the 110-mile turnpike.
Last year, more than 16 million vehicles passed through the York plaza, up from fewer than 5 million a year when it was first built.
The cost of a new toll plaza is estimated at $33 million to $56 million, depending on the location. York Town Manager Robert Yandow said selectmen continue to oppose any new site in York.
"They have taken the position that if it needs work, it can be rehabbed," Yandow said.
The town has hired its own engineer to assess the findings of the turnpike authority and its engineers. Yandow said the selectmen are waiting to hear the latest recommendations before they respond.
"We do know that they have come up with sites only in York, which is exactly what happened last time," he said.
Critics want to know why engineers have rejected the dozen possible locations in surrounding towns.
"Why have they spent two years on something and we are back at square one?" said Joan Jarvis, a member of Think Again, the group that opposes a new location.
Jarvis said Think Again supports repairs at the present site to make sure the toll plaza is safe for employees and motorists, but it questions the need for reconstruction at any location, considering the declining traffic and dwindling resources.
After Thursday's meeting, turnpike officials will put together a list of the best sites and schedule a hearing in York for more public comment. They will then present their list to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will weigh in on which site would have the least environmental impact while being practical for construction.
There will be more public hearings on the final site before turnpike officials start work to get environmental permits. Paradee said construction of a new toll plaza would begin in 2012 and be completed in 2014, at the earliest.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at: bquimby@pressherald.com