The Newcastle Board of Selectmen, by a 5-0 vote, agreed to sign a letter stating their firm opposition to any alternate to the recently abandoned N8c route for a Rt. 1 bypass around Wiscasset.
According to a Nov. 30 press release from the Dept. of Transportation (DOT), the discovery of an eagle’s nest along the N8c route means the route “is no longer acceptable.”
According to the selectmen’s letter to DOT, “it was and remains abundantly clear that N8c is the best ‘build’ option for the Town of Newcastle and the Midcoast of Maine… The town of Newcastle strenuously objects to Maine DOT resubmitting an application to support any of the other ‘remaining alternates.'”
According to the letter, the alternate routes, including N2a, have “greater environmental impacts” and “substantially less traffic benefits than N8c.”
The selectmen also decried the price tag of the bypass. According to the letter, “$100 million is an unconscionable amount to pay in the midst of the current deficit-dominated financial landscape for a route with the severe negative environmental impacts and limited traffic benefits of N2a.”
Cost estimates for the alternate routes are “all in the same ballpark” of about $80 million to $100 million, Gerry Audibert, a DOT official, specifying, “We don’t have real hard numbers,” he said.
Newcastle Selectman Pat Hudson also serves as a member of the Midcoast Bypass Task Force, which will meet Wed., Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Edgecomb Eddy School.
“Maybe instead of building more roads [DOT] should be taking care of what they’ve got,” Hudson said.
Despite the selectmen’s assertion that the superiority of N8c is “abundantly clear,” the June 22 meeting of the Midcoast Bypass Task Force revealed opposing opinions on the suitability of the route.
During the June 22 meeting, Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce said Army Corps of Engineers determination of N8c as the Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative (LEDPA) and, thus, the only acceptable route, “set back transportation planning in the midcoast for years.”
Hudson and representatives from Boothbay and Edgecomb supported the N8c route, while Faunce and representatives from Alna and Wiscasset expressed reservations.
Rob Nelson, Chair of the Newcastle Land Use Ordinance Review Committee, attended the Dec. 13 selectmen’s meeting to speak in support of the letter. “You might be able to say [a bypass] has a benefit to Wiscasset but I don’t see how it has a regional benefit,” Nelson said.
Nelson, citing Gateway 1 materials, said even with a bypass, the state predicts Rt. 1 gridlock throughout Wiscasset.
