By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

Our rural roads are deadly, our bridges deficient or obsolete.

That’s the conclusion of a study issued Thursday by the national transportation research group, TRIP.

Among the findings:

• Route 26 in Oxford, Norway and Paris ranks No. 5 among the state’s 10 most congested roads.

• U.S. Route 202 in Winthrop, Manchester and Augusta comes in at No. 9 on the same list.

• The Chestnut Street canal bridge in Lewiston, which was built in 1927, is ranked No. 7 among Maine’s 10 most deficient bridges.

• Some sections of state highways in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties have never been built to meet modern design standards.

“We’re not surprised,” said Dale Doughty, assistant director of planning for the Maine Department of Transportation.

In fact, Doughty said, MDOT provided the information used by TRIP to reach its conclusions. The information goes to the Federal Highway Administration, in part to support federal funding for state highway and bridge projects.

TRIP spokesman Frank Moretti said the Washington-based group opted to release its report now because voters will decide in November if they support a $33.1 million bond issue to help pay for road and bridge work. Of the total, $27 million is earmarked for highway and bridge improvements.

The $33.1 million – if the bond is approved – will leverage millions more in federal highway assistance that requires states to partially match the grants, Doughty said.

The state could use the money.

According to TRIP:

• 31 percent of Maine’s non-interstate highways are rated as either poor or mediocre. They’re riddled with potholes, ruts and cracks.

• More than a quarter – 27 percent – of state-maintained roads fail to meet current design standards that deal with road surface, curves, lane widths and shoulders.

• Lousy road conditions cost each Maine motorist an average of $232 each year in accelerated vehicle depreciation, repairs, increased fuel consumption and premature tire wear.

Fatality rate

Possibly the scariest part of TRIP’s study found that motorists are four times more likely to be killed on Maine’s rural roads than on other roads in the state.

The fatality rate on those byways is 2.08 per 100 million vehicle miles of travel versus a rate of 0.43 on Maine’s interstate highway system, said TRIP.

Doughty, the MDOT planning specialist, said the state’s rural roads are more deadly for several reasons.

“We’re a rural state,” he pointed out, and the roads often find drivers traveling at high rates of speed. Most accidents on those roads are the result of lane departures, he said. Once out of their travel lanes, drivers can end up striking another vehicle, a tree, an abutment or sometimes, wildlife such as a deer or moose.

Improvements needed

Highway improvements are needed on scores of the state’s most heavily traveled roads, including Routes 2, 4 and 26, as well as on Webster and College streets in Lewiston and Hotel Road in Auburn, according to TRIP.

Listed among the most critical backlogged highway projects is a section of Route 2 in Bethel and Gilead that has seen many crashes, some fatal. The cost to correct safety deficiencies there is estimated at $27 million.

A $20 million Lewiston-Auburn downtown connector from I-95 also is on the backlogged critical-roads list.

TRIP said that Mainers rely on a high level of personal and commercial mobility, making it critical that Maine develop and maintain a modern transportation system that can accommodate future growth in population, tourism, vehicle travel and economic development.

Founded in 1971, TRIP is a nonprofit group that focuses on highway transportation issues. It’s sponsored by insurance companies; equipment manufacturers, distributors and suppliers; businesses involved in highway engineering, construction and finance; labor unions and other organizations concerned with an efficient and safe highway system.

On the Web: www.tripnet.org