CARIBOU – An advisory panel, organized as part of the study process to build a four-lane limited access highway in Aroostook County, may need more time to examine all the data involved in selecting a path for the new route.

The Public Advisory Committee for the Aroostook County Transportation Study met Tuesday for a four-hour session on routes proposed by the study consultants.

Initially, about 40 routes were suggested, and the number was boiled down to 13. During Tuesday’s session the choices were further winnowed down to five which could fit the study’s statement of purpose and need.

Road proponents have claimed that building such a highway would boost The County’s economy and help maintain and even expand population.

Comments from the PAC and the general public ranged Tuesday from needing more time to discuss the final route to be proposed to whether such a road is needed at all. In July, one route will be selected to propose to federal decision makers.

“We have to work it through and come up with a solution that’s good for Aroostook County in the next 30 to 40 years,” said Norman Johnson of Presque Isle, a PAC member.

One proposed route, which includes mostly new construction, would stretch between Smyrna Mills and Madawaska. Also meeting the study criteria were new construction up the middle of the region, an upgrade of Routes 1 and 1A and a potential new road parallel to Route 1.

Other options, designed specifically for the northern, central and southern regions of The County, were presented.

During Tuesday’s session, the environmental constraints as well as the cost and economic benefits of each corridor were detailed by officials of the Maine Department of Transportation and Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc., the Massachusetts consulting firm working on the study.

While the consultants were taking questions from the general public, Dennis Curley of Caribou asked what impact a limited access highway would have on people living in its path. Jon Feinstein, VHB project manager, said that information would come in a more detailed study once a route is chosen.

Ray Faucher, DOT’s study representative, said that any expansion of existing roadways, like Route 1, would have a “dramatic impact” on people.

“It may include relocating them or having an access road,” Faucher said.

State Rep. Ross Paradis, D-Frenchville, said he supported the new construction from Smyrna Mills to Madawaska, which would save about an hour in travel time .

Sandy Baird of Mapleton said, however, there was no justification for spending money for a road for the largest county east of the Mississippi River and only 80,000 people. There isn’t enough traffic to justify the four-lane Interstate 95 from Stillwater to Houlton, Baird said.

Baird later suggested that the same amount of money should be used to fix up existing roads. However, Faucher reminded him that the state already has a commitment to maintain existing roadways.

Former state legislator Judy Paradis of Frenchville said she believed that any new road should be a federal responsibility.

“We have horrible roads,” Paradis said.

Sam Collins, who along with Johnson has been advocating for a new route in and out of The County for years, said he hoped that the routes would be “boiled down further” and that the process would go more quickly.

“The frustration is that we’re not as involved in the process as we’d like to be,” said Collins.

Another Caribou resident, John Belanger, supported the idea of a limited assess highway. He pointed to the Trans-Canada highway with its unlimited access and high accident rate.

“We have to control access to it,” Belanger said referring to the project.

Any further comment on the proposals can be forwarded by July 6 to Susanna Liller of Barton & Gingold in the firm’s Portland office.

The consultants will consider the comments while formulating one preferred route to be presented to the next PAC meeting on Tuesday, July 24.