$500k awarded for construction of village hubs on Rangeley Lakes scenic byway

Courtesy / Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust A $500,000 award will go toward building gateway hubs in Rangeley and Oquossoc villages, which lie on either side of the north leg of the 52-mile Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway.

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By Laurie Schreiber

A project to build two highway hubs in Rangeley and Oquossoc villages was awarded $481,650 to the Maine Department of Transportation through the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways Program.

The money will go to a project dubbed the Village Connector Gateway Hubs. The project involves building two highway hubs in Rangeley and Oquossoc villages along the 52-mile Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway.

The hubs are expected to provide increased safe off-road parking for vehicles and recreational vehicles and trailers, along with pedestrian walkways providing connections to village amenities and recreational opportunities.

“The designation of these new hubs will help to spur much-needed economic activity and encourage more people to experience the beauty throughout our state,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who authored the Reviving America's Scenic Byways Act of 2019, which reopened the nomination and designation process for National Scenic Byways.

The program had not received any federal funding since 2012.

Collins worked to secure $16 million for the National Scenic Byways Program in the fiscal year 2021 funding package. As a result of the newly appropriated funding, scenic byways will be eligible to apply for grant funding to maintain the roadways; make safety improvements; construct facilities to serve pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers; and develop marketing programs, signage, and other promotional materials.

Established in 1991, the National Scenic Byways Program recognizes roadways with notable scenic, historic, cultural, natural, recreational and archaeological qualities.

Maine is home to the Acadia All-American Road, the Old Canada Road National Scenic Byway, the Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway and Schoodic Scenic Byway.

The Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway starts in Madrid and winds through Maine’s western mountains, including the villages of Rangeley and Oquossoc, and Rangeley Lake.

Earlier this year, the Rangeley Lakes National Scenic Byway won the National Scenic Byway Foundation’s 2023 Byway Organization Award for Hospitality.

The National Scenic Byway Foundation, which is based in Millersburg, Ohio, is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening byways through education, training and shared expertise.