MTA to raise tolls
The Maine Turnpike Authority is speeding up its plan to raise turnpike tolls and delaying a $150 million plan to widen the highway in the Portland area because of decreasing revenue.
Paul Violette, executive director of the turnpike authority, yesterday said the MTA would increase tolls by 23% in February 2009, a year earlier than originally planned, and that a 10-mile widening project in Portland would be pushed back to 2016 because sharp increases in construction and maintenance costs and shrinking numbers of travelers have led to declining revenue, according to the Bangor Daily News. The last toll hike was in February 2005, according to the Associated Press.
With highway construction costs climbing 38% higher just in the past three years and ridership predicted to stay flat in the foreseeable future, Violette said the MTA needed more toll revenue -- the toll increase would add roughly $20 million to its coffers next year -- to pay for highway and bridge rehabilitation projects, the Daily News reported.
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