New I-395 connector option focus of meeting

HOLDEN – The public advisory committee for the I-395 connector project will next meet from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, at the Holbrook School in Holden.

The group, given the task of advising the Department of Transportation on a road project that has stirred local concern, will consider dismissing more route alternatives while getting a detailed explanation of one variation devised several weeks ago from suggestions by committee member Jim Ring. Ring is the engineer for the city of Bangor. The route, tentatively dubbed 3EIK-2, reportedly has garnered local support and is within state-devised guidelines for the project, according to Ray Faucher, project engineer.

The proposed route, which avoids most major wetlands and skirts around area housing developments, is “a very viable alternative,” Faucher said. It is one of the longer connector proposals and features 10.6 miles of new pavement. From a “residential displacement” view, the new proposal would affect four homes while other route alternatives affect eight to 10 homes each, Faucher said.

Details on the route proposal, which reportedly has garnered scores of letters of support written to the DOT, will be provided at Wednesday’s meeting.

In other action, the committee is expected to remove most of the “two” alternatives – 2C-1 and 2B-1 as well as 3A-3EIK-1, a close relative of the new route proposal. To be completed, the proposed eliminations will have to be presented in May at a meeting of state and federal agencies in Augusta.

Faucher said that by the end of the April 30 meeting in Holden, it is expected that two alternatives will be left for serious consideration: 3EIK-2, and an older proposal, Route 2C-1/2B-1.

The 20-member PAC committee last met in January.