Oft-touted north-south highway left stranded

CARIBOU – After nearly six years and $4.5 million worth of studies for Aroostook County transportation needs, the much-touted north-south highway from Interstate 95 at Houlton north to the St. John Valley appears dead, or at least dormant.

Some members of the public advisory committee set up by the state Department of Transportation to consider the issue said their meeting Tuesday night felt more like a funeral.

Later this year, a government document known as a supplemental draft environmental impact statement will be filed with federal authorities and will address just a bypass at Presque Isle, a U.S. Route 1-state Route 161 connector at Caribou, and upgrades to Route 161 north of Caribou to Daigle Village 15 miles south of Fort Kent.

There will be nothing about road work south of Presque Isle, nothing on Route 1 to the St. John Valley, and nothing for a highway to Madawaska.

There is no mention of a four-lane highway north of Houlton.

Talk of a highway north from the end of I-95 at Houlton has been going on in far northern Maine for more than three decades.

The most recent Aroostook County transportation study, funded with $4.5 million in federal money, is only the latest effort, according to DOT project manager Ray Faucher. There have been other studies, including an $800,000 study funded under then-Sen. George Mitchell.

But there is no construction money in the coffers.

DOT officials at Tuesday’s meeting were adamant that the proposals put forth were the only ones that stand a chance of getting funded by the Federal Highway Administration.

Faucher’s group said further government documents will include cost estimates on a “no new highway model” in Aroostook County. The segments in Presque Isle, Caribou and Route 161, called the worst of the roads included in the study, will be the only items.

The Route 161 segment was called “30 miles of deficient roadway, the worst of any area in the study.”

He said the studies done in the past six years will remain a “working, living document” that can be used in the future for highway work in Aroostook County.

He had no idea when work could start in Presque Isle or any other parts that will be included in their final report.

Several advisory committee members said they were disappointed with some comparing the session to a funeral.

“The north-south highway has been left in a lurch,” said Dale Flewelling, an advisory committee member from Houlton.

Earlier in the meeting, Flewelling had noted after two economists made their reports that they seemed to have few positive points for a north-south road for people living in Aroostook County.

After economists Charles Colgan and Craig Seymour finished their presentations and DOT officials aired their plans for road construction in Aroostook County, John Edgecomb, a committee member from central Aroostook County, said, “This is not the full commitment we wanted or were looking for. We are not moving far enough ahead.”

St. John Valley residents were even more vocal.

“We need a highway in The County, and there was movement toward that before,” said Paul Cyr of Madawaska. “I came here hoping to get cost estimates of plans for a county highway. I marvel at the ability of the MDOT to obfuscate this project,” he said. “You have failed to study this project and bring us hard estimates. I’m really disappointed.”

He told the federal and state officials and those conducting the studies that they confused the people of Aroostook County with data.

“You have failed to take into account what is important in The County,” he said.

“You are not talking about a four-lane highway,” state Sen. John L. Martin, D-Eagle Lake, said. “This is contrary to the original direction of the study.”

But Faucher said widening to four lanes would not provide economic benefits. “A four-lane highway would not be good for towns along the Route 1 corridor. … A four-lane highway in Aroostook County would need a new footprint, not along Route 1,” he said.

The full highway, a road from Oakfield to the St. John Valley, was given a price tag of nearly $700 million, with a 20-year construction period. The Presque Isle bypass was listed at about $120 million with six years as a timetable.

“A record of decision does not mean this project is dead,” Faucher said. “This is a master plan, and these pieces are in the corridor for a highway.”