A turnpike exit to serve downtown Lewiston-Auburn might be located near Route 136.
A downtown L-A turnpike exit might be aimed south, according to transportation officials.
Officials have been looking at the land where the Maine Turnpike crosses the Androscoggin River in the Twin Cities for several years, trying to find a better way to get traffic downtown.
Results of traffic studies are beginning to come in, and those favor building a half-exit near Route 136 – also known as Riverside Drive in Auburn.
That kind of exit would allow cars northbound from Gray and points south to leave the turnpike near downtown Lewiston and Auburn. Downtown traffic headed south toward Gray and Portland would be allowed to get on the turnpike there.
“That just came up as an idea at one of our discussions, and now it’s become a favorite,” said Don Craig, director of the Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center.
Computer models show that most L-A bound traffic from the north would be more likely to use Exit 13 at Alfred Plourde Parkway. That area is home to a planned Wal-Mart distribution center and proposed industrial parks.
“There are a lot of jobs predicted for that area, so there should be a lot of traffic coming off it,” Craig said. “That played a key role in the calculations.”
Craig said the transportation group has not given up on other scenarios, but they’ve become less likely. Those include building an exit on River Road in Lewiston or on Main Street in Auburn.
“Main Street particularly has issues,” Craig said. “First of all, there are many homes there. It’s more of a neighborhood feel. Plus, it doesn’t have as good a connection to the downtown.”
Transportation center officials hope to present the results so far to the Lewiston and Auburn city councils and then schedule a public question-and-answer session later in March.
They hope to have the study complete and ready to present to the state Department of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority in May.
The state would evaluate the group’s results and perform studies of its own. If the state approves, work on the new interchange could begin in five to 10 years.
“We hope that we can make that time much shorter with all the work we’ve done,” Craig said. “We’re trying to answer all of their questions at the beginning.”
Craig said the group also favors building a new bridge to coincide with the turnpike exit.
“That makes the turnpike even more of a local road,” he said. “Bridges really become a choke point for traffic downtown. If we can put another one south, that really gives us four or five ways in Lewiston-Auburn to get back and forth across the river.”
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