Maine Turnpike

2013-05-23: In the fall Peter Mills CEO of the Maine Turnpike plans to present his board of directors with options for the future of toll collection at the important but troublesome south end of the Turnpike around York. He says the Turnpike Authority has three to four years to get a new toll system in place.

2013-03-04: Maine's New Gloucester toll plaza is set to begin open road electronic toll (ORT) collection April 1. It's got one highspeed (65mph) lane  leftside each direction through the toll plaza area. The single highspeed lanes were built in an area occupied by islands and booths for two stop-to-pay/roll-through lanes under canopy.

2012-10-30: Maine Turnpike Authority board at its October meeting agreed on new deeper discounts for frequent users following strong protests about the phase out of a deep discount plan as part of the toll hike Thursday (November 1.)

2012-08-16: After months of discussion of alternatives the Maine Turnpike board has this week unanimously voted toll increases to take effect November 1. The increases are designed to raise annual toll revenues $21m from the current $102m/year to $123m, suggesting an average increase in rates of slightly over 20%.

The last increase was in 2009.

2012-08-02: The Maine Turnpike Authority is responding to some of the criticism of its proposed toll increases, cutting some proposed hikes but keeping others. Under a new schedule approved by the Turnpike board E-ZPass tolls will rise only 10% from 6.7c/mile to 7.4c/mile for cars compared to the initial proposal of a 20% increase to 8c/mile.

2012-07-10: A "Summary of AET/ORT Issues" for the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) says a number of studies are needed before a decision can be made on open road tolling plus cash (ORT+cash), or all-electronic tolling (AET.) In June 2010 US Government regulators (USACE) rejected an earlier MTA plan to build a new $34m ORT+cash toll plaza no

"Poor management" of the Maine Turnpike occurred under the former chief executive Paul Violette, according to the state governor Paul LePage. In an interview with the Bangor Daily News the governor said: "There are good reasons why Paul Violette is gone and we put in Peter Mills to run the turnpike."

Actually it wasn't his management that caused Violette to "go," though perhaps it should have been.

The Maine Turnpike Authority board of directors will vote tomorrow, Thursday (06-21) on a plan by executive director Peter Mills to eliminate a net 20 positions and save some $1.25m a year.

24 present positions would be eliminated but 13 of those will be consolidated into 4 new positions, for the net reduction of 20.

The staff roster will be 288 versus 308 full-time positions now.

2012-06-06: Maine Turnpike is proposing an average increase in tolls of about 25% in order to raise annual toll revenue from around $103m to $129m. Under a recommended scenario electronic tolls (E-ZPass) go up 20% and cash tolls close to 50%. Tolls were last increased in February 1 2009.

Maine Turnpike Authority are doing their first open road tolling (ORT) at the New Gloucester mainline plaza near mile-67, about two thirds of the way north on the 103 mile Turnpike. A contract was approved by the directors today. The present 10-lane conventional barrier plaza will give up the four central lanes for a single high speed ORT lane each direction plus generous shoulders, leaving three conventional cash/slow-speed electronic toll lanes each direction.