toll plaza

The political battle over the design of Maine's southern toll plaza has seen the town of York hire their own toll system consultant to combat HNTB and the Maine Turnpike Authority. York mayor Michael Estes announced the hiring of Atlanta Georgia based eTrans at a large public meeting on the contentious issue Thursday night in York.

The tale of two I-95 toll plaza rebuilds make an interesting comparison. There are similarities and differences. Similarities are that in both states the Turnpike is the major east coast highway artery and the major link to adjoining states.

At last Delaware is moving to break the worst traffic bottleneck on the east coast - the Newark DE toll plaza on the I-95 Turnpike.

Chairman of the Maine Turnpike Authority, Gerald Conley says their engineering consultants HNTB need more time to complete their study of options at the York or Southern toll plaza. This study goes on and on. In spring last year the re-study was said to be expected for "late June (2008)." By the fall it became "the first quarter of 2009." However it's still not done.

Maine Turnpike Authority's board have asked HNTB engineering consultants to study options for upgrading toll collection at the existing York toll plaza. HNTB are also being asked to do a more in-depth study of cashless all-electronic tolling option.