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LePage Unveils $2 Billion Transportation Plan for Next Three Years

Mal Leary
/
MPBN

Gov. Paul LePage today announced a $2 billion plan of transportation projects that includes road and bridge repairs over the next three years.

But state officials stay the work will not reduce the backlog of needed improvements to the state's aging infrastructure.
 
Alongside dozens of construction workers gathered a a DOT maintenance facility in Augusta, LePage, and Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt, announced a plan calling for 523 capital projects across the state costing nearly $470 million.

Bernhardt says, while hundreds of miles of state maintained roads will be upgraded, the priority one projects are those that have economic and safety implications if left unaddressed.

"From a highway perspective, you can get across a highway that has potholes, but if you have to post a bridge - so, there are some very large bridges that we are putting out," he said. "I will give you a couple of examples - the Howland-Enfield bridge is in this work plan."

The plan also calls for the replacement of the Jonesport-Beals bridge, at $22 million, and the Mexico-Peru bridge.  The bridge work, says Bernhardt, will take additional resources, and he's hoping for more federal money and for a state bond issue.

Gov. LePage says he'd support that, but draws the line on a state gas tax increase. "Gas tax increase - no way," he said. "Bonds - depending on how the economy comes, and the affordability of debt service."

That’s encouraging to Windham Sen. Bill Diamond, a Democrat on the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, who points out that bonding has long been a part of the solution for road and bridge funding. He says the state needs to start making progress on reducing the backlog of projects.

"I am sponsoring a bond for highway and bridges and I am hoping there will be," Diamond says. "I am pleased to see the governor’s - seems his attitude has changed from several years ago, and that bonds may be part of this whole process."

But Commissioner Bernhardt acknowledges that, even with the more than $2 billion in projects, the state’s backlog of needed road and bridge work will not actually be reduced. He says that would require an an additional $110 million a year in spending.

"What this does is it keeps us on an even playing field right now, so we are not getting any worse," Bernhardt says. "There are some things we have to do when it comes to bridges and we will be talking about that over this next session."

Bernhardt says there is a report being prepared by his agency outlining additional bridge replacements and repairs that should be added to the work plan, and options for funding it.

He says that the plan is based on assumptions about what Congress will provide the states for roads and bridges, and that if those assumptions are wrong, some projects outlined in the three-year plan may be delayed and the backlog further increased.

 

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.