AUGUSTA — A watered-down Republican initiative designed to bolster the prospects of widening 30 miles of the Maine Turnpike is sailing through final votes in the Legislature.

The compromise requires the Maine Turnpike Authority to complete a study by December 1996 to determine if there are alternatives to widening 30 miles of toll road from York to South Portland.

The bill passed the Maine Senate on Monday and now awaits a final vote in both houses for enactment.

Sen. Albert Stevens, co-chairman of the Transportation Committee, said Monday he does not see any obstacles to final enactment of the bill sometime later this week.

“We see no problems,” said the Sabattus Republican.

The original bill sponsored by Senate President Jeffrey Butland would have exempted the widening project from provisions of a referendum that stopped the widening three years ago.

Instead, the widening issue would have been sent to a second statewide referendum.

Alan Caron, who initiated the 1991 referendum drive to stop the widening project, said he was happy with the compromise that outlines what the turnpike authority must do to comply with the Sensible Transportation Act enacted by voters in November 1991.

“The critical thing to us is to respect what the voters said and called for,” said Caron. “What they said was widening was the last alternative, not the first.”

The bill spells out what the turnpike authority must do to prove it has studied transportation alternatives before proceeding with a renewed effort to widen the turnpike.

Among other things, the bill would require the turnpike authority to proceed with an automated toll-collection system scheduled to take effect at the end of this year and the beginning of 1996.

The bill also would require the turnpike authority to implement a ride-share program to promote van pooling and car pooling and proceed with a park-and-ride facility in Wells.

The centerpiece of the bill would be completion of a two-year study of the effects of growing congestion on the turnpike and the travel needs of the southern part of the state.

“The bill gives us parameters of what we need to study to deal with our capacity problem on the Maine Turnpike. Then we can make a decision whether we need to widen or not,” said Conrad Welzel of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

Traffic on the turnpike has increased by 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 1995, putting the turnpike on course to break a record of more than 41 million vehicles using the highway last year.

The compromise was worked out in two to three weeks of negotiations among Butland, Caron, the Maine Alliance, the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and others.

It reiterates the turnpike authority’s power to seek legislative approval for issuing bonds to pay for the turnpike widening if studies point toward proceeding with that project.

The turnpike authority would have to take out $100 million in bonds to pay to widen the turnpike from four lanes to six lanes for 30 miles from the York toll plaza to Exit 6A in South Portland, Welzel said.