State turnpike partry to attend Austria trade group meeting

AUGUSTA – A delegation from the Maine Turnpike Authority – two top executives and three board members – will attend the annual meeting of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association next week in Vienna, Austria, agency officials said Wednesday.

The total cost for the Maine group to make the trip will be about $26,000 and comes from the agency’s budget, authority spokesman Dan Paradee said.

The state group includes MTA Executive Director Paul Violette, a past president of the international association, MTA Chief Financial Officer Neil Libby, MTA board Chairman Gerard P. Conley, Vice Chairman Lucien Gosselin and senior member Earl Adams, the agency said.

In a statement, Violette said participation in IBTTA had led to major improvements and efficiency initiatives at the Maine Turnpike.

As an example, he said becoming the first highway in New England to adopt electronic toll collection had reduced toll collector man-hours by 200,000 per year and operational costs by more than $4 million per year.

“This year, we’ll be gathering information about developments in free-flow tolling technology which allows tolls to be collected electronically while vehicles pass by at normal highway speed,” he said.

In Maine, the turnpike authority is planning to implement free-flow tolling at one or more locations over the next several years, officials said.

Agency officials described the IBTTA as the primary trade association of the toll industry, with more than 280 member agencies, and said its annual meeting is held outside the United States once every four years.

Last year it was held in Dallas, officials said.

“We typically tend to send a few people every year,” Paradee said.

The group’s 75th annual meeting and exhibition is being called “Tolling: The Art of the Possible” and is being held Oct. 7-10 at the Hilton Vienna.

Over the Labor Day weekend, the Maine Turnpike Authority scored an annual publicity coup by handing out souvenirs to departing motorists, but the agency is not always so fortunate in the kind of attention it generates.

Last year, a restaurant tab for nine Maine Turnpike Authority managers and advisers that averaged $149 per person sparked debate about ethics and expense policies governing independent state agencies.

Violette subsequently wrote a letter of apology to Gov. John Baldacci and said the consultant had been reimbursed by those who attended the dinner.

Just days ago, after a legislative committee authorized a feasibility study by the Maine Turnpike Authority of adding tolls to Maine’s interstate highway system, Baldacci immediately called it a bad idea.