CORRECTION: This story was updated at 7:15 a.m. to correct Kinley Gregg's position. She believes repairing the existing plaza would be cheaper.
Alternate sites for York plaza elicit concerns
Rebuilding at the current site is still possible, but it would add $20 million to the project's cost.
By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer
November 6, 2009
PORTLAND — York selectmen are urging the Maine Turnpike Authority to scrap its plan to build a new toll plaza somewhere in their town and instead repair the existing York toll plaza.
Selectmen took a dim view of two sites in York that were introduced at a meeting Thursday between town and turnpike officials at the authority's headquarters on Congress Street.
"You want to do this, but you don't need to do this," said Selectwoman Catherine Goodwin.
Turnpike officials indicated that they intend to forge ahead with a new toll plaza.
"We are not going to railroad anything through. We are open to all and any objective points of view," said Gerard Conley, the turnpike authority's chairman.
At issue is the turnpike's plan, initiated in 2005, to build a new toll plaza at a cost of $34 million to $56 million, depending on which site is selected.
Turnpike officials say the current plaza must be replaced. It is sinking in wetlands, they say, and is on a curve at the bottom of a hill at a busy interchange, so it is increasingly unsafe, inefficient and in need of costly repairs. Also, they say, the tunnel that gives employees access to the tollbooths is in bad shape.
Residents opposed earlier plans for a new plaza that called for the seizure of as many as eight homes. A newer design that would accommodate high-speed electronic tolling requires less space than earlier versions, so no homes would be taken.
Engineers also agreed to re-examine other locations along the 19 miles of turnpike from Kittery to Wells.
On Thursday, Roland Lavallee, vice president of the turnpike's engineering firm, HNTB Corp., said 16 locations were reviewed and only three emerged as possibilities:
• The present site, at turnpike mile 7.3, as requested by York residents, where the toll plaza would be rebuilt for about $56 million and affect 28 acres of wetlands.
• Mile 8.7, where a new plaza would be built for about $34 million and affect 1.7 acres of wetlands.
• Mile 9.1, where a new plaza would affect 3.8 acres of wetlands and cost $35 million.
York selectmen raised concerns about the two new locations and questioned the timing and the need for a new plaza. Selectmen Chairman Michael Estes said he had concerns that changing technology would make a new toll plaza obsolete by the time it could be built.
Selectwoman Mary Andrews said she fears that either of the new locations would create easier access to the town's water tower and make it vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Kinley Gregg, vice chairman of the selectmen, said turnpike officials hadn't made a good case for putting the plaza in a new place.
Repairing the existing plaza "would be much cheaper" she said, "but I am looking at this building we are meeting in, and this is not a lean organization."
Goodwin said no one has convinced town officials that the current plaza has become more problematic, in terms of accidents or congestion, especially with traffic decreasing in the past few years.
She said most people would prefer to see the authority lower tolls, and many fear the new plaza will cause a toll increase.
"You should ask yourselves, 'Should we just wait?'" Goodwin said.
Forty York residents, many of them members of Think Again, a group that formed to oppose a new plaza, attended the meeting and greeted Goodwin's words with sustained applause.
Some said they oppose the latest recommendations because, while they wouldn't require the taking of homes, they would require land seizures.
"They may have changed the sites, but we are still the same people and we are still fighting," said Paula Banville of York.
About $2 million has been spent on engineering planning for the York toll plaza so far. Turnpike spokesman Dan Paradee said, on average, engineering represents about 25 percent of the cost of a highway construction project.
The turnpike authority will meet in York in January to hear public comments on the recommended sites. The directors will decide whether to approve the recommendations, which would be handed over as early as the end of February to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A new plaza site must be approved by the Army Corps of Engineers before turnpike officials may submit the plan to local and state officials for environmental permits.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:
bquimby@pressherald.com
