Third bridge anxiety

The concept of a third international border crossing between Calais and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, goes back to the 1970s. The current effort began in the late ’80s when the two neighboring communities began discussing the project and made formal requests to their respective state and provincial transportation agencies. In the early ’90s, the two federal governments then joined in, acknowledged the need and gave approval for preliminary studies. The actual planning process began in 1998 and a final report that could lead to actual construction is expected by the end of the year.

To those who live and work in the state’s easternmost region and who have put personal interests aside for the benefit of that region, these last few months should be a time of happy anticipation as the reward of so many years of pushing and striving draws near. Instead, it is an anxious time, a time to view the future with fear.

The reason, as in all matters of real estate, is simply location. Two locations for this new bridge over the St. Croix are being considered. One, in Calais at the Route 1 industrial park, would, locals say, provide the modern and efficient Customs facilities needed for U.S.-Canada trade to thrive while also helping to increase economic activity in Calais, the region’s vitally important service center. The other, six miles up the road at the Route 9 intersection, would do fine for international trade and through traffic but would leave Calais isolated and economically devastated, and so would hasten the ongoing decline of the entire region..

The anxiety this creates is tragic and, given the circumstances, entirely needless and somewhat ironic. The Maine Department of Transportation has been commendably open, communicative and accessible during this process, officials have met often with locals and will continue to do so, MDOT and its New Brunswick counterpart maintain a Web site (www.nbdot-mdot-bordercoss.com) that is one of the most informative and current offered by any agency of government anywhere. Yet despite this considerable effort to involve the public, un-clear signals and mixed messages have fostered suspicions that the decision to build at Route 9 has already been made.

These suspicions may be unfounded but they are not irrational. On the New Brunswick side, the approach roads already have been configured to ensure that St. Stephen is not left stranded, making the absence of a similar commitment here toward Calais discomforting. An unpublicized meeting early this year between Maine and New Brunswick transportation officials was an unfortunate mistake. The difference in cost on this side of the border between the two bridge options – $6.8 million for Route 9, $7.1 million for Calais – is minimal, yet it has not been made nearly clear enough to the public that, given the 80-20 federal-state cost-sharing formula, it is, at a mere $60,000 difference for Maine, utterly inconsequential.

The announcement just last week that the Calais option could be $10 million or more higher if it included a widening to four lanes of that six miles of Route 1 stunned locals as it was offered without the explanation that such a project add-on will only make sense at that time in the distant future when Route 9 is upgraded to a four-lane, limited access highway all the way to Bangor and I-95 and thus will be an inconsequential part of a $1-billion project, with the same 80-20 split in play.

It is known that the economic impact of the two locations will be factored into the final decision, but it has not been made clear how great a factor local economic impact will be in a decision that will so profoundly effect an entire region. MDOT has done a tremendous amount of quality technical work on this project, the studies and reports available on that Web site are first rate – it now must do more to assure the people of eastern Washington County that they haven’t been pushing and striving all these years for something they have good reason to fear.