Economic Connector

The state a few years ago discovered the need for a highway link across Maine because enough citizens yelled for enough time that the economic disaster under which much of the state was suffering was caused in part by its distance from everywhere else. A divided four-lane highway would bring economic benefit – as well as increased safety – by making the region seem not so far away, lowering the cost of doing business all across Maine and opening up markets, especially to the west. As state officials, including Maine’s new transportation commissioner, consider one phase of this project, the extension of I-395 to meet Route 9, they should hold fast to the larger purpose of the highway and ensure that its long-term benefits are not sacrificed to its short-term costs.

A growing demand in Brewer that a particular option – 4B – be put back on the list of possible connectors between the two roads is understandable. Residents there see the local benefit of this option, which roughly parallels Route 1A, they know 1A is often overcrowded and will need relief of some sort anyway in the coming years, and they know 4B would be less invasive to housing developments. What they do not know is how its higher cost compares with its benefits or how such a cost-benefit analysis compares with similar analyses done for the other four or five options. They don’t know because neither the public advisory committee on this project nor the local city officials who will have to live with it have been given this prerequisite to making an informed choice.

The costs they know about: The stretch of highway that would emerge from option 4B would require a lot more cuts and fills. These and its length make it a more expensive choice than the others. But it is the benefits – whether the added cost is worth it based on total increased economic activity and avoided additional costs to 1A – compared with the other options that remain unexplained. As long as they are, the state Department of Transportation can expect residents of these communities to question the choices the department is making. Unfortunately, the residents may not even have the opportunity to see whether the choice they want would make the most sense.

The DOT removed 4B as an option, citing costs, and seems to have no interest in considering it again, although other options have come on and off the list before. Gov. John Baldacci this week nominated David Cole of Brewer as his transportation commissioner. One of Mr. Cole’s first inquiries in his department should be to ask why his department has not more thoroughly discussed the potential benefits of the connector, rather than simply emphasizing its costs.

When he endorsed the idea of a limited access east-west highway in October 1999, Gov. Angus King said, “It is clear from the studies that considerable economic benefits would accrue to the state by improving links to Canada and in particular the growing markets of Montreal and Toronto.” That, succinctly, is the point of this $1 billion project: The highway, starting in Calais and heading west, is being built to create economic opportunity for the entire state.

If the highway is to be properly sited, this overall economic opportunity must be a major consideration at each phase. It certainly should be considered more fully for the connector between I-395 and Route 9, and option 4B should remain on the map until it is.