Wiscasset Route 1 bypass dead
Money concerns have led the Maine Department of Transportation to scuttle plans for a Route 1 bypass in Wiscasset, after decades of planning.
DOT Commissioner David Bernhardt said yesterday that the $100 million price tag, and not last year's discovery of an eagle's nest in the proposed bypass route, led him to call off further study, according to the Portland Press Herald. Eagle nests are protected under federal rules, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked DOT officials to propose a new bypass route after the discovery. The state has already spent $2.5 million over the past decade on bypass studies, and Bernhardt said the limited benefit of the project did not justify additional costs. Traffic typically bottlenecks on Route 1 in Wiscasset's village center during the tourist season.
Earlier this year, the DOT scrapped another Route 1 transportation initiative in the midcoast: the six-year-old Gateway 1 project, a regional land use and transportation plan to guide growth along the Route 1 corridor. Bernhardt cited fiscal constraints in the decision to end the project.
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