AUGUSTA — An impressive array of government and business leaders lined up Wednesday to say the southern portion of the Maine Turnpike needs to be widened, but only if alternatives don’t ease congestion.

The same group rallied around Maine’s Sensible Transportation Policy Act, the legislation which requires transportation planners to consider nonconstruction alternatives first.

On the Maine Turnpike, such alternatives include peak-hour toll surcharges, car pooling and electronic toll-taking.

Both the prohibition on widening the turnpike from York to South Portland and the Sensible Transportation Policy Act were enacted by voters in a 1991 referendum after a contentious campaign.

Lawmakers are reluctant to overturn either part of the referendum result, but Wednesday, Senate President Jeffrey H. Butland, R-Cumberland, presented an amended version of his turnpike-widening bill that may pass political muster.

Butland originally had asked for a second referendum on widening the toll highway, but was advised that could be politically divisive. So instead, Butland proposes to allow the Maine Turnpike Authority to widen the 30-mile section of highway only if it concludes after thorough examination of alternatives that widening makes the most sense.

In other words, the turnpike project would be subjected to the same kind of scrutiny that all other highway projects must undergo under the Sensible Transportation Policy Act.

The MTA would have until Dec. 15, 1996, to complete its evaluation of alternatives and then move forward with a decision on whether to widen the turnpike. In 1991, the estimated cost of the widening from four to six lanes was about $100 million, all of it to come from tolls.

Dennis Bailey, Gov. Angus S. King’s press secretary, indicated the governor probably would support Butland’s approach, though he wasn’t yet convinced the turnpike needed to be widened.

“The message is loud, the message is clear and the message is consistent — widen the turnpike,” Butland told the Transportation Committee. “The turnpike is the gateway to Maine and it is Maine’s economic lifeline to the rest of the country.”

Butland said the turnpike, with two travel lanes in each direction, is the same width it was when the southern portion was built in 1947. About 10 miles of highway from Kittery to York already has been widened to six lanes.

Traffic records fell on the turnpike last year, with an all-time record 41.8 million vehicles, a 15 percent increase since 1991.

“The turnpike between Kittery and Portland is unsafe, period,” said Butland.

Sen. Joan Pendexter, R-Scarborough, who is chairwoman of the Maine Highway Safety Commission, said that group is strongly in favor of widening the southern turnpike.

Sen. Philip Harriman, R-Yarmouth, said, “Maine people have had time to reflect since the vote and consider what Maine’s needs are. I believe Maine’s economy needs this infusion of economic adrenalin.”

Rep. William Lemke, D-Westbrook, said he evolved from opposing widening to supporting it because of his interest in truck safety and his concerns that breakdown lanes aren’t wide enough.

“Quite reluctantly, I have come to the conclusion that the Maine Turnpike must be widened,” Lemke said. “There are clear and compelling safety considerations.”

Also supporting widening were the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Maine Alliance, the Maine Motor Transport Association, the Maine Innkeepers Association and the Maine Better Transportation Association.

Everett B. Carson, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said, “This amendment in my view does not give the Maine Turnpike Authority free rein to go forward and widen the Maine Turnpike. If a rigorous analysis is done of the reasonable alternatives, then we’re going to respect that decision.”

Sen. Charles Begley, R-Waldoboro, offered a companion bill to do away with the Sensible Transportation Policy Act because he said it was causing transportation projects to be delayed by being endlessly studied.

A co-sponsor, Rep. Richard Cambell, R-Holden, said, “A significant number of voters were certainly unaware of this portion of the referendum. Maine people need good roads and bridges first.”

Edward Wall, a selectman from Lisbon, showed off a big pile of reports he said were studies through the years of the Route 196 corridor through Lisbon. He claimed the Sensible Transportation Policy Act was causing delays.

Alan Caron, a leader of the 1991 referendum campaign, said, “The implication that the voters did not know what they were voting on in 1991 insults the voters of Maine. To say now that they didn’t get a fair hearing is ludicrous. If this bill passes the Legislature, it’s going to tell people that government knows best and they don’t count.”

Transportation Commissioner John Melrose opposed the bill and said the new transportation policy, with its emphasis on citizen participation, was working well.