LEWISTON – Converting Lisbon Street to three lanes bought the city about 15 years, according to a new traffic study.

“What we are trying to avoid is being forced to make that next leap, from three lanes to five, for as long as we can,” said Don Craig, director of the Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center. “Once we hit a certain traffic capacity it becomes necessary to expand the road. But the good news is, we won’t hit that capacity for a while.”

Craig said the study is being written by Gorrill Palmer Engineering. The final draft is due to be released later this month.

The study looks at the traffic load on Route 196 between Lewiston and Topsham and makes suggestions for growth. The road is the main route between the Twin Cities and the coast and sees thousands of car trips per day.

The city approved plans in 2005 to restripe the road from the Lisbon town line to the Maine Turnpike’s bridge over the street. The road had two lanes in either direction at the time and that made turning into businesses along the road difficult and dangerous. The state made changes to the road a requirement for future development.

Rather than increase the road to five lanes – which would have cost up to $8 million – the city opted to repaint the road stripes and make it three lanes. The road now has one lane bound for Lisbon, a second bound for downtown Lewiston and a third turning lane between the two.

“It’s actually worked out quite well, and I think that’s surprised a few people,” Craig said.

It’s also changed the traffic pattern enough to stay the eventual expansion. Lisbon Street handles between 14,000 and 15,000 car trips daily.

“We’d have to get to 24,000 or 25,000 trips before we’d need to begin thinking about expanding it,” Craig said.

The report will also have some recommendations about the road’s intersection with Main Street in Lisbon. The road is two lanes at that point, with no room to expand. It’s sandwiched between buildings on the north side, a railroad track on the south and the Worumbo Mill.

One solution might be to make Main Street one-way between Route 196 and High Street. That would steer some traffic away and allow for shorter red lights.

“But it’s short-term fix, about five years more,” Craig said. “It’s a major bottleneck for the entire corridor, so we need to look for longer-term solutions.”