TIMELINE – YORK TOLL PLAZA REPLACEMENT 2006 - 2011
2006
Summer: York Weekly article reveals towns arguing among themselves over who should have the new toll plaza. Article does NOT address requirement.
September: MTA meets informally with Towns of Ogunquit, Wells and York to address most suitable location for replacing York toll plaza
December: Windol Weaver submits legislation to delay construction of York Toll Plaza
2007
May: Maine Legislature passes LD 534, a Resolve, Directing the Maine turnpike Authority to Study the Relocation of the York Toll Booth introduced by Representative Windol Weaver. Governor Baldacci signs on 30 May.
2008
January: MTA holds project update and work session with York Town Manager and Community Development Director and holds joint presentation to Select Boards of Ogunquit, Wells and York on 23 January to gain public input on decision to replace York plaza per LD 534.
February: MTA holds first Public Information meeting in York with sparse attendance. Stakeholders learn that homes will be taken by eminent domain at four candidate sites.
March: Concerned citizens appeal to York Selectman for support in fight against toll plaza relocation and taking of homes and land by eminent domain.
April: MTA presents York Toll Plaza Replacement Technical Report in Response to Maine LD 534 to Joint Standing Committee on Transportation. Contains five options: (1) No Build; (2) Infrastructure Upgrade with No Additional Capacity; (3) Upgrade Existing Site with Conventional Tolling and Increased Capacity; (4) Upgrade Existing Site with Highway Speed Tolling and Increased Capacity; and (5) Relocate Plaza to Alternate Location with Highway Speed Tolling
Representative Weaver delivers testimony on relocation of York toll plaza to Joint Standing Committee on Transportation. Emphasizes potential taking of homes and land has become town-wide issue. Objects to MTA plans to make relocation decision in three months when lawmakers are out of session.
MTA second Public Information meeting. Seven hour meeting attended by over 500 angry citizens demanding MTA find another site that does not require taking of homes by eminent domain or have major impact on the community.
York Selectmen pass resolution opposing MTA plans to relocate the current toll plaza in York. Agree to include non-binding referendum on 17 May ballot to allow all York citizens to vote on MTA plans.
Think Again grass roots coalition of York Citizens against toll plaza relocation generates over 1,000 letters to MTA Board Members and Members of the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation; requests meeting with the Standing Committee to present its case. Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce opposes relocating current plaza and supports reevaluating current plaza's site.
Portland Press Herald announces MTA Board of Directors will meet with the York Board of Selectmen on April 29 to discuss future of York toll plaza. Also, report outlining options for dealing with plaza will be complete by June 19, with another public hearing envisioned for Summer 2008.
Think Again public awareness rally to bolster support in protesting MTA relocation and expansion plans for new 21-lane toll plaza. Selectmen and Legislature speakers oppose MTA plans to take homes and land by eminent domain.
York selectmen and MTA officials meet to discuss growing concerns about proposed relocation and expansion project. Selectmen and Think Again members formally address turnpike board. Outcome includes formation of York Committee to work with the MTA and expectation that MTA Board will come to York for a public hearing after MTA staff submits draft report on toll plaza project.
May: MTA meets with York Committee. Agrees to direct their engineering firm (HNTB) to reevaluate existing toll plaza site, with goal of a report to the MTA Board by 19 June 2008.
91% of York citizens cast vote is support of non-binding referendum opposing relocation of York Toll Plaza.
June: York Committee meets in York with Senator Dennis Damon and Representative Boyd Marley, co-chairs, Joint Standing Committee on Transportation to address issues and concerns about toll plaza project.
July: York Committee and legislators informal meeting with Jay Clements, Senior Project Manager, Maine Project Office, US Army Corps of Engineers to begin open dialogue and identify federal permitting process that toll plaza project will be following.
York Committee and legislators informal meeting with Mary Beth Richardson, Project Manager, Southern Maine Regional Office, Department of Environmental Protection and Linda Kokemuller, Licensing Coordinator, Southern Maine Regional Office, DEP to begin open dialogue and identify state permitting process that project will be following.
October: Town Manager and Board of Selectmen Chairman receive letter from MTA Chairman Gerard P. Conley Sr., stating detailed investigation to utilize existing location to be completed in early 2009. Also envisioned smaller 15 lane plaza with 5 northbound lanes, 6 southbound lanes and 4 highway speed lanes.
Selectmen address contents of Conley letter and warn against complacency leading to surprise recommendation as to relocation versus retention of current site.
2009
April: York Selectmen authorize contract with independent highway consulting engineering firm to conduct an initial Technical Engineering Investigation, Environmental Assessment and Requirements Analysis to be used in rebuttal of the conclusions and recommendations contained in the 15 February 2008 Maine Turnpike Authority document entitled “York Toll Plaza Replacement Technical Report in Response to Maine LD534”.
June: MTA engineering firm HNTB presents Existing Site Evaluation report to MTA Board and York Selectmen (see May 2008 milestone: MTA meets with York Committee. Agrees to direct their engineering firm (HNTB) to reevaluate existing toll plaza site, with goal of a report to the MTA Board by 19 June 2008).
Editorial in Portland Press Herald (Our Views) headlines “Toll plaza report offers more fuel for debate – It doesn’t answer all the critics’ questions, but it does keep the current location in play”.
Editorials in Portsmouth Herald and York Weekly stress “Leave York toll plaza alone for now” and “MTA should leave well enough alone with York tollbooth”.
Think Again continues public awareness campaign stressing that “it’s NOT over”.
July: Article in York Independent details that Think Again warns that latest Maine Turnpike plan is putting local homes and land at risk
September: Article in Portsmouth Herald announces that Maine Turnpike Authority board of directors is expected to make official its plans to renew investigation of 16 sites to replace current York toll plaza.
October: Article in Portsmouth Herald announces that York Board of Selectmen will attend HNTB Phase I re-investigation report at MTA headquarters in Portland on November 5th, and that report is expected to narrow the number of sites from 19 to three to five. The number of sites was originally 16, with three later added, including a proposal to leave the tollbooth where it is currently on Interstate 95 in York.
November: Article in Portsmouth Herald entitled “Turnpike Authority's York tollbooth options criticized - Four prospects presented” reports that HNTB, the consulting engineers for the Maine Turnpike Authority have put forth four alternatives for the York toll plaza, two essentially at the current site and two farther North, which involve taking some private property. The four alternatives are to keep the plaza at its current location and do nothing, build a new one in roughly the same area, or build a new one at mile marker 8.7 or mile marker 9.1.
Editorial in TOLLROADSnews entitled “HNTB provides Maine false and misleading advice on all-electronic tolling” claims that HNTB’s misinformation has embroiled the Maine Turnpike in an unnecessary conflict with communities in south Maine over how to replace the York Toll Plaza, and set the Turnpike on a path of wasting some tens of millions of dollars on building a contentious white elephant.
Editorial in Portsmouth Herald entitled “Why not wait on turnpike toll plaza?” stresses that in lieu of spending between $36 million and $56 million, the current location has served its purpose for all these years, and can certainly hang on for a few more.
December: MTA and HNTB meet with abutters of the four sites now under consideration as part of the US Army Corps of Engineers Phase I permitting process. Critics thanked the MTA for setting up the meeting, but told the MTA to be cautious and warned that the town of York is going to be out full bore in opposition if the MTA takes people's land, even if you're not taking houses.
Article in Portsmouth Herald discloses that the York Board of Selectmen is sending a message in a position paper to the Maine Turnpike Authority, the Army Corps of Engineers, legislators and anyone in the state who uses Interstate 95, to keep the toll plaza where it is in York and to do improvements without increasing toll rates; and that the MTA has failed to adequately justify its need to relocate the York Toll Plaza. Selectmen want the MTA to fix what's necessary with the current tollbooth, recommending that within a decade it be torn down and replaced by all-electronic tolling.
A town-wide meeting with the MTA as part of the US Army Corps of Engineers Phase I permitting process is announced for Thursday January 21, 2001 at 6:00 PM in the York Middle School.
2010
January: Editor of TOLLROADSnews (http://www.tollroadsnews.com) concluded that the Maine Turnpike Authority is working off a preposterously misleading report by civil engineers that makes unsubstantiated and unqualified claims about legal and financial matters and that All-Electronic Tolling clearly should be one of the options being considered as part of the permitting process on I-95 in south Maine, especially since the plans for a new mega-toll plaza are unacceptable to the local people.
Article in Portsmouth Herald reports that more than 300 people jammed the gymnasium at York Middle School on Thursday night, 21 January, to listen to the Maine Turnpike Authority and offer often pointed and feisty comments on its plans to relocate the York toll plaza. Also unveiled at the meeting, York Selectman Michael Estes announced that the board has hired eTrans Group Inc., a specialist in electronic tolling, that has identified all-electronic tolling as "a feasible option" for the York tool plaza upgrade.
A follow-on article in the Portsmouth Herald reports that one day after the meeting between the MTA and the town of York, there apprears to be little room for consensus from either group on the York project, and although they "heard very clearly" that the overwhelming message is that the people supported cashless tolling, the MTA has long maintained electronic tolling is too far into the future and that a new plaza is needed now.
Portsmouth Herald editorial asks “why in the world spend upwards of $53 million for a plaza that fewer motorists will use, that could be outdated in the next 10 years, in a town that has made it clear it doesn't want it and that it will fight a new plaza, likely waging a legal battle? Certainly the MTA's bondholders cannot possibly want that.”
February: Portland Press Herald reports that York selectmen are expected to vote on hiring a consultant that specializes in electronic toll collection to study an alternative to divisive plans for replacing the York toll plaza on the Maine Turnpike.
The study would provide a counterpoint to the Maine Turnpike Authority's proposals, which favor developing a new plaza nearby. The goal is to replace the aging and obsolete barrier that is sinking into wetlands and is considered a safety hazard at the gateway to Maine.
Maine Turnpike Authority Board of Trustees voted to approve the sites recommended by the MTA staff and turn documentation over to federal regulators for review. The board voted to send on four recommendations: do nothing and keep the current plaza as is, an option that is required under Army Corps guidelines; or build a new plaza at one of three sites — slightly farther up the road, at mile marker 8.7 or at mile marker 9.1.
March: The Phase I report is submitted to Jay Clement, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Maine Project Office, Manchester, Maine, coinciding with a visit to York by Daryl Fleming, president of The eTrans Group Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia to meet with town officials and representatives of Think Again and to physically see the York toll plaza. Fleming, whose company is involved in all-electronic tolling sites across the country, has been hired by the town for up to $15,000 to write a rebuttal to the MTA Phase I report.
April: TOLLROADSNEWS.com reports that the eTrans study commissioned by the town of York argues that all-electronic toll (AET) collection is both the most cost-effective and the most environmentally friendly solution to the longstanding dispute over a new 'gateway toll plaza' on the south end of the Maine Turnpike and challenges the Turnpike's notion that AET is more financially risky than open road tolling (ORT). It also says that open road tolling (ORT) opens the Turnpike to major revenue losses unless an effective back office operation collects from interstate motorists, and that the same back office operation can support all-electronic tolling (AET).
May: TOLLROADSNEWS.com provides concise synopsis of three AET-based counter-proposals and rebuttals to MTA Phase I report:
Town of York eTrans study
Think Again rebuttal
Peter Smith twenty-year business case analysis
Portsmouth Herald and TOLLROADSnews.com report that the Office of Program Evaluation and Governmental Accountability (OPEGA), the oversight office that scrutinizes the accountability and performance of state government agencies, has begun a significant probe of the Maine Turnpike Authority. OPEGA launched a two-month preliminary review in March that was completed at the end of April. Among the key concerns detailed in the preliminary report, OPEGA determined the MTA has not provided any revenue to the state since the mid-1990s. Other key areas to be investigated by OPEGA is the MTA's bond rating, its relationship with its bondholders, what agencies have oversight over the MTA, whether the MTA has the capacity to operate and maintain other sections of roadway, and what specifically the MTA spends its toll revenues on.
TOLLROADSnews.com further reports that the federal regulator (US Army Corps of Engineers) is likely to return the Turnpike draft environmental impact statement as "Incomplete" for not listing sufficient options.
June: Think Again confirms that the Corps has advised the MTA that “a higher degree of scrutiny (of the Phase I report) is warranted in light of the early and well organized local opposition to the project”, and as such, “requires additional information before concluding the Phase I review”.
2011
March: Portsmouth Herald reports in the midst of the continuing controversy over the Maine Turnpike Authority, the fate of a proposed York toll plaza remains in flux. Scott Tompkins, project information manager at the MTA, said the authority has been buried under work, answering questions posed by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, which issued a report last month outlining a number of questionable activities by the MTA. The findings in the OPEGA report, coupled with subsequent scrutiny by the Maine Legislature's Government Oversight Committee, led to the resignation of MTA Executive Director Paul Violette. Tompkins said the York toll plaza "team" met recently to continue the process of answering Clement's questions, and he expects the work will be completed by the end of March or beginning of April.
April: TOLLROADSnews.com reports that a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority indicated that the new chief executive, Peter Mills, is reviewing all the practices and policies of the Turnpike. On the York toll plaza issue, the spokesman said, Mills wants to get both sides of the argument and fully review the matter before he takes a position.
May: TOLLROADSnews.com and bangordailynews.com report that the Maine Turnpike Authority will not be submitting a Paul Violette-era response to the US Army Corps of Engineers. Peter Mills, Violette’s successor as Executive Director has decided that it would be prudent to take time for a full review of the Turnpike's old proposals before they go back to the Corps. To quote Peter Mills: “We’ve decided to take a completely fresh look at the toll. There’s no immediate hurry.”
September: TOLLROADSnews.com, reports that the Maine Turnpike Authority has contracted with Wilbur Smith Associates to review HNTB’s past proposals for the “troublesome” York Toll Plaza.
Portsmouth Herald and York Weekly report that Maine Turnpike Authority Executive Director Peter Mills told selectmen on Monday, September 12th, that a new independent report by Wilbur Smith Associates on the feasibility of all-electronic tolling at the York toll plaza will be considered from the standpoint of financial risk only; that Selectman Mary Andrews told Mills, "You need to realize it's not just abutters that feel passionate about this; the whole town feels passionate about this"; and that Mills met with members of Think Again after the board meeting and will be coming back to York to meet with Think Again at 6 p.m., Tuesday, October 11th, at Norma's Restaurant on Route 1.
October: Portsmouth Herald and York Weekly report that Maine Turnpike Authority Executive Director Peter Mills is taking measures to get E-ZPass transponders into the hands of more Mainers, saying it's the best method for replacing the current York toll plaza with an all-electronic gantry above Interstate 95. Addressing more than 30 members of Think Again, Mills also advised that there was no timetable for the MTA to make a decision whether to keep the current toll plaza until all-electronic tolling is feasible.