Transportation needs tangible Mainers often go for vision of state projects

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Mainers traditionally embrace transportation spending packages like the $63.45 million for which Question 6 seeks authorization, and it’s easy to understand why: There’s nothing abstract about where the money would go.

If the question passes, the funds would be applied to a host of tangible transportation improvement projects around the state, including highway, rail, airport, ferry and port work.

Because the state also can use the bond money to attract matching federal funds, the $63.45 million is expected to draw more than $200 million in additional money for projects in Maine.

“The impact that the transportation bonds have perennially is well-known and well-understood by Maine voters,” said Greg Nadeau of the state Transportation Department. “There really is no better bang for the buck than transportation bonds.”

The bonds account for a large chunk of funding for the state’s two-year transportation program, which includes 2,000 miles of highway resurfacing, 180 miles of highway reconstruction and 80 bridges. Those projects in turn translate into 10,000 jobs, Nadeau said.

Amy Fried, an associate professor of political science at the University of Maine, said transportation spending packages generally fare well on ballots around the country, as well as in Maine.

“Transportation spending is the kind of spending citizens can see a real impact in their life,” she said. “They want someone to spend money to fix the roads. Everyone is bothered by poorly maintained roads. It’s not a hard sell.”

Roads and bridges seem to be key to winning voter support, Fried said. A borrowing request in Washington state that focused on a new monorail failed, she said, possibly because many voters would not have used the new train.

The Waldo-Hancock Bridge, which critics have said was ignored by Maine’s Department of Transportation for years, is a prime example of what happens when investment is not made in infrastructure, she said.

The status of transportation infrastructure is becoming a national issue, she said, referring to a “report card” issued earlier this year by the American Society of Civil Engineers which rated U.S. roads at D+; bridges at a C; and aviation at a D.

Critics of the state DOT, such as Waldo County Commissioner and Prospect resident John Hyk, say the Waldo-Hancock Bridge is the poster child for what happens when maintenance is neglected.

The progressively worsening state of support cables on the 62-year-old bridge, which links coastal Waldo and Hancock counties along Route 1, dominated headlines this summer and backed up tourist and local traffic. It also forced trucks loaded with goods and supplies for area businesses to be rerouted.

The transportation bond package includes $4 million for what Hyk refers to as a “down payment” on the expected $57 million cost of a new bridge.

Seemingly heeding Fried’s warning about needing to be relevant to voters in order to pass, Hyk stressed that the bridge was more than just a local problem and that it was “important to the northern half of the state.”

The bond package also contains $2.6 million for the LifeFlight emergency helicopter transport system. The nonprofit LifeFlight system, founded by Eastern Maine Healthcare and Central Maine Healthcare, is used by emergency responders to transport seriously ill patients from smaller hospitals to larger hospitals or injured victims of accidents from remote locations to where they can get medical attention.

The funds will go toward building helipads near 18 hospital emergency rooms and improving helipads at six other hospitals, as well as for improved weather reporting, navigational systems and refueling facilities at 13 locations, mostly in northern, eastern and western counties, according to LifeFlight director Tom Judge.

Bob Keating, chief deputy of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, remembers an emergency in July in which LifeFlight played a crucial role. A Monroe man’s leg had been caught in a hay baler, and, while the local ambulance crew worked to free him, a helicopter was dispatched to the scene. The man was flown from the site directly to a trauma center at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

“LifeFlight was a godsend,” Keating said. “It saved valuable, valuable time, and probably saved the man’s leg.”

The bulk of the bond – $42 million – is aimed at highway and small bridge improvements, as well as highway and bridge study, planning and engineering, such as:

. $300,000 for a corridor study in Brewer and $788,800 for a corridor study in Skowhegan.

. $788,800 for improvements to Route 1A in Ellsworth.

. $1.1 million for improvements to Route 6-155 in LaGrange.

. $578,000 for improvements to Route 166-166A in Castine and Penobscot.

. $546,638 for improvements to Route 131 in St. George.

. $3 million for improvements to Route 6-15 in Jackman.

. $1.9 million for improvements to Route 7 in Dixmont.

Among other projects the bond would help fund around the state are:

. $2 million for a new ferry on the Rockland to Vinalhaven run.

. $1.1 million for expanding the heavily used Island Explorer bus system on Mount Desert Island and other, similar programs.

. $3.6 million for improvements to 31 of Maine’s airports.

. $2.6 million for industrial rail improvements to help the Georgia-Pacific mill in Old Town and other businesses.

. $2 million for freight rail preservation in northern and eastern Maine, assisting the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railroad (formerly the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad), said to be critical to industry in Millinocket and elsewhere.

. $1.4 million for storage and warehouses at Mack Point in Searsport.

The improvements at Mack Point, where a new pier was completed this summer, will allow the facility to handle “break-bulk” cargo.

Jim Therriault, vice president of marketing for Portsmouth, N.H.-based Sprague, which operates both piers at Mack Point and owns one, said the warehouses are important to the port.

“It’s crucial,” he said. “Many of the commodities – especially paper – have to be protected from the elements. Warehouses are essential.”

If the bond package is approved, the $63.45 million also will be used to leverage an additional $217 million from federal transportation programs and $18 million from local sources.

The state typically proposes bond funding for transportation projects every two years, said Maria Fuentes of Maine Better Transportation Association, a nonprofit transportation advocacy group.

Two years ago, the request was for $61 million, she said, which leveraged about $120 million in federal funds. The current bond package includes more highway and bridge projects, which bring in more federal funds, Fuentes explained.

Paying for transportation improvements through borrowed funds is sensible, she said, “because these are capital projects,” as opposed to maintenance work. “I think the level of bonding is very responsible.”

Ten years ago, 14 percent of the Department of Transportation’s budget was funded through bonds, but that number has been reduced to between 4 and 5 percent, Fuentes said.

Also on the ballot Nov. 4 will be two other bond questions: Question 4, seeking $19 million for educational investments, and Question 5, seeking $6.95 million for environmental projects. If approved, the three bond questions would allow the state to borrow a total of $89.4 million, slightly more than the $85 million in bonds the state will pay off this year, according to state Treasurer Dale McCormick.

No organized opposition has surfaced to any of the bond questions.

McCormick said interest rates that the state would pay, probably around 4.75 percent, are higher than they were in the last few years but still low in comparison to longer-term averages.

McCormick also said the proposed bond sale would keep the state’s debt service well below a benchmark for prudence: 5 percent of general and highway fund revenues. In fact, the debt would be at 3.9 percent, an all-time low, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Question 6 (Bond issue)

Do you favor a $63,450,000 bond issue for improvements to highways and bridges, airports, state-owned ferry vessels and ferry and port facilities, and port and harbor structures; development of rail corridors and improvements to railroad structures and intermodal facilities; investment in the statewide public transportation fleet and public park and ride and service facilities; statewide trail and pedestrian improvements; and expansion of the statewide air-medical response system through construction of hospital helipads, building additional refueling facilities, upgrading navigational systems and acquiring training equipment to improve access to health care that makes the state eligible for $217,000,000 in matching federal funds?