Baileyville best site for third bridge

The facts, studies and correspondence prove that the third international bridge planned for the Calais area belongs to Baileyville, at or near the junction of U.S. Routes 1 and 9 west at a location known as Alternative 2-A. This is the location of common sense, sound reasoning, beneficial to our environment and the choice of through-travelers, both truckers and motorists alike.

Building the third bridge at this location will eliminate the need to widen the narrow two-lane Route 1 through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge from Calais to Baileyville into a four-lane high-way. That highway would become necessary if the Maine Department of Transportation were ever allowed to build the third bridge in Calais at the industrial park location known as Alternative 3 and virtually on top of the two international bridges already located in Calais.

The DOT and others would lead everyone to believe that the locating of the third bridge at the Alternative 3 site is a done deal. It is not a done deal. A letter dated Aug. 10 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Friends of Magurrewock contains the following statements:

“We have determined that Alternatives 2-A [the location in Baileyville near the Jct. of U.S. Route 1 and Route 9 west], Alternative 3 [at the Calais Industrial Park] and the no-build alternative must be more fully analyzed before determining the Least Environmentally Damaging Practical Alternative (LEDPA). Although Maine DOT has identified the industrial park alternative in Calais as their preferred alternative, the Corps has made no such determination and will not do so until after we’ve conducted a full public interest review. …

“The Corps will not issue a permit until we’ve determined that the project is not contrary to the public interest, that the LEDPA has been selected and that all unavoidable impacts to aquatic resources have been fully mitigated.”

All of the facts, studies and surveys prove that the third bridge belongs in Baileyville at Alternative 2-A.

Sound reasoning, good judgment and common sense alone prove that the third bridge belongs at Alternative 2-A in Baileyville. A four-lane highway through the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge would never be needed if the third bridge were built where it belongs in Baileyville.

Friends of Magurrewock has contacted Gov. Baldacci’s office on many occasions with regard to our findings asking the governor to intervene and bring an end to the goings-on that insult their intelligence, waste their tax dollars, cater to special interests and violate the public trust placed with the DOT and the governor’s office. Friends of Magurrewock has been formed for the sole purpose of bringing the public together for the purpose of doing what is legally, morally and ethically right and necessary in order to reverse the terrible, biased and environmentally unsound decision of the DOT to build a third international bridge in Calais.

A decision was made by the DOT when all the facts, findings, surveys and studies pointed to Alternative 2-A as the “preferred” site on which to build the third bridge.

This decision made by the DOT defies common sense, good judgment and sound reasoning.

William L. Szirbik Sr., of Baileyville, is co-founder of Friends of Magurrewock.