GETTING PAST ELLSWORTH

Ellsworth and the Maine Department of Transportation have come up with a traffic plan that nobody seems to like very much and some actually hate. It calls for one-way southbound traffic on the Bar Harbor Road from McDonald’s to Myrick Street, the new route that serves Home Depot. Northbound traffic will be diverted into Myrick Street to join Route 1 for a left turn to Ellsworth or a right turn to Down East points.

The project is intended to solve an expected gridlock problem posed by increasing construction on Myrick Street including a new 500,000-square-foot shopping center. Some critics fear that the new routing will be merely a stopgap measure that will lead to worse gridlock in the future.

Business owners in the planned one-way stretch complained about the project at a recent meeting with city and state officials and project engineers. They feared loss of business and reported that national chains had already dropped negotiations for franchised businesses. Some predicted confusion and traffic backups on side roads as motorists seek to avoid the area.

An obvious long-term solution would be a bypass to serve through traffic, but Ellsworth merchants have blocked repeated bypass proposals by DOT. When a Bar Harbor man asked whether a bypass would help, the DOT division traffic engineer, Victor Smith, said he couldn’t see it happening in his lifetime. He is 39 years old.

Land acquisition costs, already in double-digit millions, keep increasing, and the department has stopped proposing it.

Steve Joy, president of the Katsiaficas Real Estate Agency, which owns several businesses in the affected strip, says he suspects the DOT has, in effect, told Ellsworth, “OK, we’ll give you enough rope to hang yourself.” Then, when gridlock becomes overwhelming, Ellsworth would come begging DOT for a bypass.

Mr. Joy, as member of the Ellsworth Planning Board, has thought of a possible plan that has not attracted support but might make sense: Start with a northbound bypass of Ellsworth, to let departing MDI vacationers avoid Ellsworth as they head for Bangor and points west and south. Southbound traffic would continue for a time on Route 3 through Ellsworth. After this phase-in period, when people had gotten used to the change, the bypass could be converted to two-way.

But, for now, the new routing is going forward. Construction is scheduled to start this spring. The changeover should be completed by the fall of 2008 or the spring of 2009.

Ellsworth’s bypass is put off until the distant future, if ever.