YORK - The Maine Turnpike Authority has pledged that it is going back to the drawing board and looking carefully at all options - including keeping the York Toll Plaza right where it is - in response to a public outcry on proposals that would result in the taking of local homes and land.
However, York officials and members of the grassroots organization "Think Again" are skeptical as to whether that is really what is happening.
MTA officials were in town in May for a meeting at the York Beach Fire Station, the first of an ongoing schedule of meetings on the toll relocation plan, but a response issued earlier this month by the MTA to questions about keeping the plaza at its existing location has residents believing the MTA already has its decision made on one of four sites that could mean the loss of several York homes.
The MTA's letter came on the heels of local residents learning MTA representatives had met with Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the United States Army Corps of Engineers on the project on May 9, raising concerns about whether the site approval process was moving forward behind the scenes.
Town Manager Rob Yandow asked MTA officials for clarification on that meeting, and received assurance from the authority that this was simply a required part of the process and not related to any specific site selection.
According to the MTA's written response to Yandow's question on the May DEP pre-application, "MTA staff met with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP), Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) and the Untied States Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) on May 9 to respond to a request from MDEP and ACOE for a status report on the York Toll Plaza Project, given the public inquiries the MDEP and the ACOE had been receiving. The MTA staff provided these agencies with a summary of the process and project material developed to date. The agencies requested that they be kept informed of the project as it evolves. As with all projects potentially requiring agency permits, the MTA staff has been coordinating with the agencies since project inception. It should also be noted that on Dec. 8, 2006, the MTA delivered a proposal of the basic York Toll Plaza Project purpose and need to the ACOE as is standard when contemplating a project that may require agency environmental permits. Based on this purpose and need statement in April 2007 the ACOE forwarded their determination of the basic project purpose. The ACOE will use this to analyze the alternatives, review avoidance and minimization efforts and to make sure the project compiles with various agency permit guidelines."
The MTA's description of the toll relocation project, which is included on the MTA website, states, "The site selection process began more than a year ago with an engineering survey of the entire stretch of highway from mile marker 3 in Kittery to mile marker 19 in Wells. The survey sought to identify any and all sites that could accommodate the footprint of the proposed toll plaza."
In town, however, residents and officials alike are questioning that process - especially with the MTA's June letter suggesting that keeping the plaza where it is will cost tens of millions more than moving it, and with the discovery of a 2005 Portland Press Herald article where MTA officials are quoted as stating the authority has decided it will not repair the existing plaza and, instead, a new one will be built within four miles of the current location and to the north.
Yandow pointed out that statement came more than two years before the MTA held its public meeting in York this winter to disclose four potential sites within just the area described for the new plaza in the 2005 article - sites where local homes and property would be lost to the project.
"This all makes me wonder about the 16 potential sites," Yandow said.
Looking to the MTA's recent letter on the costs of the project, Joanne Muckenhoupt, a member of the York-based Think Again, said the MTA has taken York's request to repair the toll both and keep it right where it is and turned it into a proposal to build a brand new plaza at the site.
In response to the request for a look at the current site, the letter reads, "reconstruction of the existing plaza, while not addressing all safety or operational issues, and not meeting the basic engineering design criteria could cost $37 million dollars plus an additional $10 million dollars worth of wetland mitigation costs (estimated 26 acres impacted) plus upwards to $15 million dollars for advance soil construction. Still, the estimate for the existing site alternatives does not include potential costs of reconfiguring the Chases Pond Road interchange or its complete relocation to meet some of the basic design guidelines; which could also add millions to the cost, pushing the total cost to over $70 million dollars."
The MTA contends that building a new plaza in one of the alternate sites that would result in the loss of homes and land "could cost $36 to 38 million with an additional $0.5 to $4 million in wetland mitigation costs (estimated 1-11 acres impacted). A new plaza would be located such that other unknown costs are minimized and/or avoided, e.g. soils, interchanges, roadways, etc. Based on location selection criteria a new location would meet all the basic design criteria as well as address deficiencies and issues currently plaguing the existing plaza. Therefore a new plaza in a new location may cost up to $40 million dollars."
Muckenhoupt and other Think Again members, as well as town officials, believe this response indicates an unwillingness to seriously consider the existing site. In an era where toll collection technology is continuously evolving, the question should not be about building a brand new plaza at the site, Muckenhoupt said, but about fixing what is already there - at a significantly reduced cost.
"Repair the existing toll booth," she said. "There's nobody to show us that can't be done."
Opponents of the toll relocation are focused on keeping the plaza where it is primarily because they do not want to see any home or land taken for the plan. However, they also believe there is no real evidence supporting the need for a new tollbooth. The MTA contends one factors is safety reasons, but opponents are quick to point out that there have been no serious accidents documented at the plaza in at least the past five years. As for costs, MTA representatives have acknowledged at the public meetings held in York this spring that a new plaza is not expected to generate additional revenue. And on the issue of meeting federal guidelines for such plazas, members of Think Again point out that there is no federal money coming in for this project, and that the guidelines refer to new projects, not repairs of existing ones.
"They looked at how to change it, rebuild it to meet those federal guidelines that we don't need to meet," Muckenhoupt said of the most recent cost estimates. "This is not what we asked them to look at doing. They are skirting the consistent option of repairing the existing tollbooth."
All this comes as MTA officials acknowledge record gas prices are projected to result in a decrease in traffic at the tolls. In fact, according to data included on the MTA website, traffic volume on the turnpike for the month of May, 2006, was 5,286,848 vehicles, which increased to 5,467,124 in May of 2007. However, that number is down by about 150,000 this year - to 5,319,396 for May of 2008.
"Think Again maintains the position that the MTA has still not given any factual reason for why the existing booth can not be repaired. We understand that they continually mention safety and capacity, yet when we question them on these issues bringing the same data to the table as they have, they do not have the answers. It would be fiscally irresponsible to spend the millions of dollars on a new tollbooth when it is feasible to repair the existing," Muckenhoupt said. "It's not for Maine as a state. It's not doing any good. Give us something to change our minds."
MTA representative were scheduled to meet with Think Again and town officials on June 19, but that meeting was canceled because a report by the MTA's engineering firm HNTB on the existing plaza was not complete. No new date for that meeting had been announced at press time.
For more about the MTA's project plans, visit www.maineturnpike.com. To learn more about York's effort to protect local properties from being taken for a new plaza, visit www.thinkagain2008.com. To read about the public's reaction to the most recent MTA letter, see our "Letters to the Editor" section.
