The state Dept. of Transportation (DOT) has submitted its response to the Army Corps of Engineers’ (ACOE) finding opposing the DOT’s preferred Rt. 1 bypass option.
Of the three ‘build alternative’ routes and a no-build option, the DOT holds to the route it labels N2A, which would cross the Sheepscot River via a small bridge above the railroad bridge crossing at Clark’s Point to Edgecomb.
“The Maine DOT and Federal Highway Administration continues to recommend N2A as the LEDPA (Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative) because it provides the best overall solution to the decades-long traffic congestion problem along Rt. 1 in the Wiscasset-Edgecomb area,” the DOT wrote in its response.
The Army Corps of Engineers, on the other hand, prefers the alternative labeled N8C, which consists of a long bridge from above the Wiscasset water treatment plant and touches down on Davis Island in Edgecomb. It presented its arguments for the route in a March 6 letter to the DOT.
Whichever route all parties determine as the LEDPA will determine which route then goes for Federal Highway Administration analysis for a Record of Decision. As soon as the Record of Decision is completed, the DOT can begin the preliminary design and purchase property.
“By the end of the year, we should know what the LEDPA is,” said Gerry Audibert, DOT project co-manager in the Bureau of Transportation Systems Planning. He said the Army told him the agency expects to have a determination by mid-October followed by a 30-day notice for a public hearing, which will be the last opportunity for public comment.
Neither the federal or state planners recommend the third option which differs from N2A mostly because of its path along the shore of Clark’s Point and crossing the Sheepscot River via a longer bridge than N2A requires and touching Edgecomb at a lower point closer to Rt. 1.
Contrary to past cost estimates, all three options have comparable estimated costs of $85 million, including property acquisition, engineering design and construction, according to Audibert. Audibert also said the three routes affect about the same number of properties.
Neither party prefers the no-build option, which the DOT said in its response packet fails to accomplish three main objectives which the build alternatives do: improving public safety, enhancing mobility, and providing net improvement to the environment in Wiscasset.
The no-build option includes an allowance for a modification of the Rt. 1-Rt. 27 interchange in Edgecomb.
“The impacts of the three remaining build alternatives are so close that Maine DOT developed a scoring methodology to assist the Midcoast Bypass Task Force in identifying its favored bypass alignment,” the DOT’s response states. “The scoring shows N2A is the most practicable alternative.”
The DOT also said the Midcoast Bypass Task Force, which represents nine area communities and four additional interest areas, recommends N2A as its preference.
In the past couple of years, the interchange has been the object of much dispute between Wiscasset and Alna, but the change represents a compromise. “We hope it pleases everybody,” Audibert said.
Some Alna officials and other citizens objected to an interchange on Alna Rd., but several Wiscasset officials and citizens favored one to prevent gravel trucks and commercial trucks from traveling along lower Federal St. to Rt. 1.
By means of a connector road between Gardiner Rd. and Alna Rd., the DOT came up with an out-of-the-box design for interchange along the connector road, closer to the Gardiner Rd. end but not on it. The change eliminates entering and exiting traffic on Gardiner Road and meets Alna’s desire for no interchange on Alna Rd.
