A new turnpike exit would save travel time and reduce downtown congestion.
AUBURN – Putting a new turnpike exit closer to downtown might shave a minute off travel times, based on current conditions.
But transportation officials say there’s more to picking a place for a new interchange than faster commutes.
“Our purpose is not to just make times quicker, but to free up traffic out of the downtown,” said Don Craig, Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center director. “We’re hoping to make things more direct, to let people go right where they need to go.”
Currently, drivers have two choices: Drive almost 6 miles through Auburn to get to the Washington Street exit or battle 10 Lisbon Street traffic lights to get to the Alfred Plourde Parkway exit.
Both trips take the same amount of time – about eight and a half minutes. Putting a turnpike exit along the river, either on Auburn’s Riverside Drive or Lewiston’s River Road, trims about one minute off each route to the turnpike.
But Auburn’s Washington Street exit actually becomes the fastest way downtown when you figure in time spent on the turnpike itself, thanks to the 55-mph speed limit. Portland drivers headed to the Longley Bridge would save about three minutes by taking Washington Street instead of either proposed interchange and almost five minutes over the Plourde Parkway exit.
“That may be the way things are today, but you get a different picture if you double the traffic,” Craig said. That’s what the center expects in the next 25 years, especially at Lewiston’s exit 80. Much of that will be from job growth in the southern Lewiston area, from downtown Lewiston to the Wal-Mart food warehouse complex.
Currently, an estimated 17,050 drivers use the turnpike between Auburn and Lewiston. An estimated 16,000 get on or off at the Washington Street exit each day and about 12,000 use the Plourde Parkway exit.
Lewiston’s Plourde Parkway exit would get as many as 22,000 cars a day by the year 2025 if nothing changes, according to computer models. Auburn’s Washington Street exit would get an estimated 18,750 cars a day.
The proposed interchanges would each pull some of that traffic away. Putting an interchange along South Main Street or Riverside Drive drains about 3,000 cars away from Washington Street.
Putting a new interchange on River Road in Lewiston – about 1.44 miles from the Plourde Parkway exit – would take about 10,000 cars off that exit and another 2,000 away from Auburn.
A combination plan that would include a southbound-only exit at River Road and a full interchange on Auburn’s Riverside Drive would take away 10,000 cars a day from Plourde Parkway and 4,000 from Washington Street.
“And where you get off depends on where you’re headed,” Craig said.
If you’re coming from Portland and you want to go to downtown Auburn, exit 75 might still be the best option, he said. “It’s the first one you come to, and it is a straight shot. But if you are going to New Auburn or part of Lewiston, it starts to become a toss-up.”
The center is evaluating four possible turnpike exit plans, plus a new bridge between Lewiston and Auburn south of South Bridge.
Planners expect to present their options to the state this spring, with details on possible costs, environmental effects and economic impact. If the state agrees that a new exit makes sense, a new interchange could be in use by 2010.
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