GORHAM – The fate of a study aimed at easing traffic congestion through the corridor from Gorham to South Portland will be on the Maine Turnpike Authority board of directors’ table Friday.

The corridor has been cited as one of the state’s worst for traffic and is a fast-growing residential area, but a new road identified in a study as one potential traffic remedy in the region could be years away. Meanwhile, with daily bumper-to-bumper traffic in the southern portion of town, Gorham officials are hoping for relief.

“It’s a huge issue for Gorham,” Town Councilor Michael Phinney said Tuesday.

The Maine Turnpike Authority, which is saddled with financial burdens, and the Maine Department of Transportation bankrolled Phase 1 of the Gorham East West Corridor Study that ended this year. Phase 1 recommendations included a potential turnpike spur scenario from the area of the southern end of the Bernard P. Rines Bypass on Route 114 in Gorham to the Maine Turnpike.

However, at issue now, according to Peter Mills, interim executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority, is whether the turnpike should continue to invest in studies. The first phase of the study funded 80 percent by the turnpike cost $1 million.

The options facing the turnpike board include continuing the study with a Phase 2, postponing it or abandoning it.

The matter will be discussed when the board of directors meets at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 29, at its headquarters 2360 Congress St. in Portland near Exit 46. Scott Tompkins, a spokesman for the authority, said the corridor study will be a topic in a workshop at 10:30 a.m.

Turnpike board action is expected to follow the workshop.

Phinney and other Gorham town councilors are planning to attend the meeting, which is open to the public.

Mills said last week a complete 5-mile spur would cost $110 to $120 million. “It would be a very expensive proposition,” Mills said.

The turnpike authority now faces mounting financial commitments to pay for a widening of the turnpike and sharing in costs of millions of dollars in upcoming bridgework over the Piscataqua River that runs between Kittery and Portsmouth, N.H. Mills said the Gorham spur wouldn’t be feasible until probably 2019.

Mills recently traveled the congested corridor at 5 p.m. with Gorham Town Councilors Matt Mattingly and Phinney, along with former Councilor Burleigh Loveitt, who serves on the study’s Steering Committee. They toured routes 22 and 114, and the Maine Mall area along with Brackett and McLellan roads in Gorham.

“Traffic was pretty bad,” Phinney said.

The corridor connects commuters from Buxton, Gorham, Hollis, Standish and other inland towns with the interstate system, Maine Mall, Portland International Jetport and jobs. More than 22,000 vehicles a day travel the overlap of routes 114 and 22 in South Gorham, according to traffic counts in 2008.

Phinney said the amount of traffic in the corridor surprised Mills.

“He understands the problem and saw it first hand,” Phinney said.

A major transportation and land use study involving representatives from four core communities – Gorham, Scarborough, South Portland and Westbrook – along with Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, a metropolitan planning organization, began analyzing the corridor in 2009.

Turnpike and state transportation officials led the broad-based study. It was aimed at not only solving traffic congestion but also improving safety and preserving rural character.

Besides alternatives that included a new highway and or upgrades of existing roads, Phase 1 recommended municipal zoning changes to allow density development along with increased transit to ease traffic.

If funding is approved, Phase 2 of the study likely taking several months would get under way this fall.

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