WATERVILLE — Sandy Cormier, one of the neighbors of a proposed new Interstate 95 interchange, said she is concerned the proposed project will scare off the wildlife in the area and change the character of the Trafton Road neighborhood.

“When we moved out here, we did it because we love it out here away from everything,” said Cormier, who has lived on Trafton Road for 33 years with her husband, Greg. “They don’t understand what they’d be taking away from all of us if they built that ramp.”

To the dismay of its potential neighbors, the proposed I-95 interchange near the Waterville and Sidney municipal boundary recently cleared a hurdle when the Federal Highway Administration concluded the project would have “no significant impact on the natural or human environment.”

Residents who live near the proposed partial-cloverleaf ramp off I-95 have strongly opposed the project, showing up en masse to voice their concerns at a public meeting about the interchange. Some repeatedly have written letters to the editor opposing the project.

“Our house value will just drop,” said Greg Cormier, whose home would lie directly adjacent to one of the ramps connecting to I-95. “We benefit nothing from this.”

The couple said animals, ducks, deer and birds inhabit the land the ramps would run through.

The interchange is planned as a partial cloverleaf with two semicircular ramps and two direct ramps to the highway.

The primary hurdle for the interchange is its $6 million price tag. Trafton Realty LLC, which owns 921 acres near the site and wants to develop it, proposed the project and would bear one-third its cost, according to the plan.

The remaining two-thirds would be split between the state and Waterville. So far, the city has not approved funding for the project.

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