Local business leader writes us on the York Maine toll plaza - letter to the editor

From Marshall Jarvis: The Maine Turnpike Authority could, as you suggest, make changes to the York toll plaza within their current footprint. But the situation is not urgent. I believe the MTA has the time needed to produce a good long term solution.
 
Being here in York gives us the advantage of seeing the actual traffic patterns on an almost daily basis.

HNTB, which generated the justification for the new plaza and documented it in their response to a legislative directive (LD534) badly misread the traffic situation, and the cause of congestion. There is rarely any back-up at the York toll plaza itself during the peak periods in the summer.

HNTB said that the biggest problem was the southbound direction on 3 or 4 peak holidays in the summer, implying the problem is lack of capacity at the toll plaza.

The Piscatqua River Bridge on the border with New Hampshire is the real bottleneck. It causes traffic to back up from the border north through the York Plaza (at Milepost 7) sometimes right into Wells (Milepost 18).

Any money spent at the York Toll Plaza alone will not affect the throughput on I-95 in southern Maine.
 
On the mix of traffic by toll payment mode, HNTB heavily underpredicted the shift to E-ZPass.

When they wrote their justification for the $35m+ new toll plaza just a couple of years ago they predicted that E-ZPass usage would be 50% of toll transactions in 2008. As it turned out in 2008 actual E-ZPass usage was 58%.

HNTB seriously underestimated the success of E-ZPass now that it works in all the New England states.

New Hampshire's implementation of E-Pass has seen a surge in E-ZPass use in Maine. Our Maine E-ZPass transponders can now be used in New Hampshire and theirs here in Maine, so E-ZPass is more attractive to the citizens of both states.  

With New Hampshire now putting in open road toll (ORT) lanes at their main plaza in Hampton, more drivers again will see the benefits of E-ZPass and switch from paying cash. Maine will benefit from New Hampshire's actions in seeing more electronic tolling, less cash and less congestion at the York toll plaza and others.
 
While underestimating E-ZPass HNTB overestimated overall traffic growth. They initially based their estimates of future traffic at the southern Maine toll plaza on 2% long term growth per year.

Seventeen miles down the same road, New Hampshire predicted 1% annual growth at the Hampton Toll Plaza.  

Since the legislative directive LD 534 was published, HNTB has revised downward their long term estimate of traffic growth on the Maine Turnpike to 1% per year. Actually, since the peak in 2007, traffic has dropped in both 2008 and 2009 by 6% to 7%. Many think it could be quite a long time before we return to the earlier traffic levels, let alone see the steady annual growth on which the toll plaza expansion is justified.
 
HNTB's analysis shows that over the next decade, as more people use E-ZPass, the traffic will flow with less congestion, not more. There is just no need for any hurried short term expedient.

Maine Turnpike is not under the traffic pressure that you have described at the Newark Plaza in Delaware where the volumes are much heavier (double) and serious congestion routine. We just don't have that up here in Maine.

Marshall Jarvis, York Maine
 
EDITOR'S NOTE: Marshall Jarvis is president of Jarvis Cutting Tools a manufacturer of precision tools based in Rochester NH. He travels the Maine Turnpike from his home just across the border in southern Maine.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-11-21