The Maine Turnpike Authority would save $20 million if it built a high-speed toll plaza 1½ miles north of the existing York plaza rather than the site preferred by the town of York, according to new engineering firm report.

The Turnpike Authority board of directors will discuss the report Thursday as it prepares to make a final decision this fall on where to build the plaza, a controversial project years in the making.

A new toll plaza would be designed to allow motorists to pay cash at booths or to pay electronically by using highway-speed center lanes. Press Herald File Photo/Jill Brady

The town of York and a citizens group called Think Again support building a new plaza at Mile 7.3, just 400 feet north of the existing plaza. It would cost $60 million to build a plaza at that site because of poor soils and engineering challenges, according to a report by Jacobs Engineering Group, a global engineering firm based in California. A significant portion of the site is wetlands.

The firm, which was hired by the Turnpike Authority, said it would cost $40 million to build the plaza at Mile 8.8 because the site has better soils for construction. Its location on a straight section of the highway and at the crest of a hill provide good visibility for approaching vehicles, and it would be safer than the Mile 7.3 site, which is on a curve, the report said.

At Mile 8.8, there are four houses within 1,000 feet of the site compared to 47 houses at the Mile 7.3 site, according to the report.

The Turnpike Authority’s previous engineering firm, HNTB Corp., did a similar study in 2009 and concluded that the best site was at Mile 8.7, just one-tenth of a mile away from the site recommended by Jacobs Engineering.

The precise location is not the issue, said Turnpike Authority Executive Director Peter Mills. He said both engineering firms recommend building the plaza along the stretch of highway from roughly Mile 8 to Mile 9 and that the site near the existing toll plaza is a poor choice because of its wet soils and higher construction costs.

He said the authority has the cash on hand to build the project at either the town-preferred site or the sites suggested by the engineering reports without raising tolls. It would be hard to justify spending $20 million extra without getting any additional benefit for motorists, Mills said.

“I’m sure the people who pay the tolls want us to spend the money wisely,” he said.

Mills went to York on Friday and knocked on doors on Chases Pond Road, located near the Mile 8.8 site, and distributed maps and information about the project to homeowners.

The Turnpike Authority wants to replace the York toll plaza, which collects $56 million in toll revenue per year, because it’s sinking into clay soils and has a leaking tunnel full of electrical components. The new toll plaza would be designed to allow motorists to pay cash at booths or to pay electronically by using highway-speed center lanes, like what now exists now on Interstate 95 in Hampton, New Hampshire.

‘KEEP IT WHERE IT IS’

York residents overwhelmingly support building a new plaza at Mile 7.3 because that site has already been disturbed by the existing toll plaza, which was built in the 1960s, said York Public Works Superintendent Dean Lessard. Moreover, residents who live near the plaza agreed to accept the additional noise, air pollution and light pollution generated when they bought their homes. A big concern is the noise that trucks make when they brake and accelerate at the plaza, he said.

Lessard said the site at Mile 8.8 is near one of the largest subdivisions in town, with more than 100 homes. For those homeowners, he said, living near the plaza would not be a choice.

“Keep it where it is, and where it has always been and where the town has evolved around it,” he said of plaza plans.

Leaders of Think Again could not be reached for comment. On the group’s Facebook page, the group said that building the plaza at Mile 8.8 would negatively affect residents living at Whippoorwill subdivision and on Chases Pond Road.

Officials from the Maine Turnpike Authority and Jacobs Engineering will hold a workshop with town officials and residents on Aug. 3 to discuss the report in detail.

Mills said the Turnpike Authority board of directors will make a final decision in September or October and that construction would not begin until 2017 at the earliest.

He said it would take two construction seasons to build the plaza because workers will have to stop during peak traffic times in the summer to avoid creating jams.

“You don’t want to be messing around with it on the Fourth of July weekend,” he said.

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