Maine’s LePage unveils $2 billion transportation plan

Updated Jan 31, 2015
Maine Gov. Paul LePage.Maine Gov. Paul LePage.

Maine travelers should prepare to see $470 million worth of improvements and maintenance on the state’s transportation infrastructure this year which is part of a three-year plan unveiled by Gov. Paul LePage earlier this week.

The three-year plan, valued at about $2 billion, includes more than 1,900 projects for 2015, 2016 and 2017. However, only the projects listed for 2015 are firmly funded and scheduled, while projects planned for the final two years are still subject to change depending on funding, prices, permitting and weather, according to Bangor Daily News.

The improvements to be done in 2015 include the replacement or rehabilitation of 47 bridges, with an estimated value of nearly $95 million; onstruction or reconstruction of 108 miles of state roads for $122 million; new pavement on 252 miles of state roads, worth an estimated $86 million, plus less exhaustive surface-level paving projects on 600 additional miles of roads, at a cost of around $28 million; safety improvement projects at 76 locations throughout the state, priced at $30 million; capital projects for ports, rail, airports and other transit facilities at 94 locations, worth close to $72 million.

One of the bigger projects scheduled to take place over the next three years is the $11.1 million replacement of the Androscoggin River Bridge between the towns of Peru and Mexico. Other projects include work at the Bangor International Airport, improvements to Portland’s International Marine Terminal, and a dredging project in the commercial channel of port in Searsport.

“It’s imperative if we’re going to move Maine from poverty to prosperity that we have good infrastructure,” LePage said, according to Bangor Daily News.