Maine Turnpike Authority Chairman Gerard P. Conley’s Maine Voices column in The Portland Press Herald provides clear evidence of the MTA’s attitude and lack of fiscal responsibility (“Report on turnpike pointed out ways to improve operations,” Feb. 15).

They are contrite when they are caught and arrogant where there is not adequate oversight.

Chairman Conley states that they are still planning to relocate the York toll plaza despite clear statements from the towns of York, Ogunquit, and Wells to keep the toll plaza where it is.

The MTA is planning to proceed with open-road tolling, known as ORT, despite the fact that the technology is obsolete, is more expensive to install and has already caused one fatality in Hampton, N.H..

Simply stated, with open-road tolling there will still be barriers in the road that cause accidents, and it will require the taking of land to construct conventional toll booths.

All-electronic tolling, or AET, which has been proposed by the Town of York, is cheaper to install, eliminates all toll booths and barriers in the highway, is cheaper to operate and would generate more income for the MTA.

Despite these facts, the MTA is moving ahead in New Gloucester with ORT because it has no oversight on what, where, or how it spends its funds.

Its vision statement calls for working with local communities and pursuing “state of the art” technologies. It fails miserably.

 

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