HOLDEN – More than two years after a local advisory panel took on the task of helping to find a path for a road that would connect Route 9 with the interstate highway system, it appears the effort might be entering the homestretch.

During their meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Holbrook School in Holden, members of the Interstate 395-Route 9 public advisory committee will consider a pared-down list of alternatives, according to the map and related material that project officials released late last week.

The proposed road, a two-lane, limited-access highway that might one day be upgraded to four lanes, is aimed at easing congestion and improving safety in Brewer, Eddington and Holden. State officials also see the road as a link in an east-west route through Maine.

Maine Department of Transportation project engineer Ray Faucher said earlier that money can’t be budgeted for engineering, rights-of-way acquisition or construction until the proposed routes are reduced to one or two. Given the hurdles the project still faces, the earliest construction could begin is 2006.

To date, the advisory panel and the MDOT study team assigned to the connector road project have considered 67 variables, each identified by a letter and number code assigned as part of a nomenclature system that some have described as cumbersome and confusing.

As things stood going into the panel’s last meeting, in mid-November, 16 possibilities remained on the table, six alternatives and 10 modifications of alternatives. By the end of that meeting, about two-thirds had been dismissed because they would have disturbed unacceptable amounts of wetlands, did not meet transportation needs, were too costly, or were unacceptably intrusive to existing development, to name a few reasons.

The group’s goal is to find the few affordable alternatives that best meet local transportation and safety needs, satisfy federal and state rules, and have the least adverse effects on nature and people. Only one or two viable alternatives – which now exist on maps as two wide swaths in need of refinement – will move into the next phase, which calls for more detailed analysis.

A “no build” option must be considered under federal guidelines, but MDOT officials already have conceded that doing nothing would neither address needs within the study area nor satisfy the study purpose.

When the group meets Wednesday, members will consider the five alternatives still on the list. Remaining contenders, which fall under two broad categories, are:

. The so-called “2 routes” – 2B-1, 2C-1, 2C-2 and 2C-1/2B-1 – both begin where I-395 ends in Brewer and head northeast along the Holden-Brewer line. They each would end beyond the intersection of Routes 9 and 46 near the Eddington-Clifton line.

The options differ in that 2C-2 would head west toward its endpoint just south of Clewleyville Corners, while option 2B-1 remains on the Brewer side of the town line and 2C-1 takes a route slightly more easterly just inside the Holden side of the border.

The latter two alternatives converge west of Clewleyville Corners to become 2C-1/2B-1. The combined option would continue northeast along the Holden-Brewer line before crossing into Eddington, where a proposed northerly spur would collect traffic from Route 178. From there, option 2C-1/2B-1 continues west to the Eddington-Clifton line.

. The most direct route, 3A-3EIK-1, also begins at the Brewer end of I-395. However, it heads north after crossing the Holden town line, dips south of the Eaton Ridge residential development and then heads northeast to its endpoint on Route 9 near the Eddington-Clifton line.

MDOT is retaining it for further study, but it appears to have little support among advisory panel members and the public.

Despite regional support, the alternatives known as 4B and “Improved 4B” are absent from the short list.

As proposed by panel member Richard Bronson, it was similar to the original 4B route, which ran from the end of I-395, then south off U.S. Route 1A to Holden, where it turned northeast roughly parallel to Route 46, ending near the Eddington-Clifton line. The improved version, however, closely hugged Route 1A, taking it out of the neighborhoods in the hills of Holden and offering visibility for Route 1A businesses. Ramps or an access road would provide access to those businesses.

In a memorandum distributed at the November public advisory committee meeting, project officials moved to scrap 4B because the rugged terrain that parts of it crossed made it the most expensive to build. The memo, written by Bill Plumpton, a project manager from MDOT consultant Gannett Fleming of Pennsylvania, also noted that it appeared Brewer was that route’s sole supporter.

Elected officials from Brewer and Bucksport have adopted resolutions in support of the concept because it is the only one that would address traffic congestion and the dangerous mix of residential, tourist and tractor-trailer traffic now traveling Route 1A. Members of the regional road group Regional Transportation Advisory Committee 2, which covers Washington and Hancock counties, supported the concept though they did not refer to an alternative by name. The route also is popular with east-west highway advocates because it addressed the Route 1A traffic bottleneck at Holden.

In their resolve, Brewer officials said the limited-access connection also should address larger regional travel issues – namely the need to improve the flow of traffic to the Acadia National Park region and to improve east-west connections with Canada and with other northeastern states.

Bucksport Town Manager Roger Raymond said last week that the key reason for his community’s support was the need to improve the transportation network between the International Paper mill and IP’s woodlands in Washington County. He said the petroleum “tank farm” in Bucksport is a source for much of the heating fuel used in Down East Maine.

The 4B concept proved unpopular in Holden, where local officials adopted a resolve opposing it because they say it would adversely affect residential areas and environmentally sensitive areas, including deer wintering yards.