Recently, without thinking, I decided to pay a quick visit to Damariscotta. Pulling out of my driveway and heading up Washington Street past BIW’s hustle and bustle I momentarily forgot all about the impact of Route 1’s new viaduct construction. Even if I hadn’t, consideration of the City of Ships’ temporary travel inconveniences surely had nothing to do with where I was going. Hanging a right at Leeman Highway’s chaotic intersection and proceeding up the Sagadahoc Bridge ramp, the northbound lanes ahead were clear sailing. No problem.

Only then did the blunder of my decision hit home as I sped past a solid wall of stopped traffic attempting to travel south. Too late to change direction or circumstance, I continued on as the opposite lanes inched towards Bath and extended at a snail’s pace as far as I could see. It wasn’t until reaching Neguasset Lake that southbound traffic finally returned to a normal flow.

If it were the height of summer’s tourist season that normalcy would again deteriorate near Montsweag, where a slow march towards the gauntlet of Wiscasset would begin. Being winter, that seasonal nightmare is of little concern. All was well and good, yet as I passed the turn to RT 27 I began strategizing an alternative route back across the Kennebec.

When Red’s Eats is up and running and Wiscasset’s in full tourist mode I rarely attempt to brave direct passage unless very early in the day. Circumventing it by way of inland back roads is a far preferred exchange of time and distance. Maine’s Prettiest Village’s motto is a hard sell when experienced bumper to bumper.

Wiscasset will seemingly never embrace the on-again, off-again concept of a Route 1 bypass around its downtown seasonal gridlock. Meanwhile, Damariscotta’ long ago bypassed downtown is congested by intentional visitors stimulating business rather than those suffering another delay to their chosen destination. Imagine Maine Street Brunswick if Route1 didn’t mercifully sidestep it.

This particular trip in and out of Damariscotta was problematic only in negotiating its municipal parking lot which had taken on some water likely due to a “super moon” tidal extreme the night before.

Traveling back through Wiscasset, I ended up chancing a hopefully less taxing Route 1 return to Bath than experienced by those venturing it earlier that day. The alternative would be to skirt Merrymeeting Bay by crossing the Kennebec upriver at Richmond, then down through Bowdoinham to Brunswick and returning to Bath from the south. An altogether fine road trip if one has the time.

As luck had it, midday traffic going south didn’t bog down until approaching the Taste of Maine. The stop-start slow crawl forward was passed by listening to a radio broadcast expounding on the environmental impacts of raising animals as a food source. As the widest expanse of the Kennebec flowed by far below, I listened to what was described as a “one-stop” cause of global water pollution, deforestation and a carbon footprint in methane emissions rivaling fracking. Food indeed for some serious climate change thought.

Gazing upriver, I noticed how the Kennebec was at that moment overflowing what is touted as a soon to be a contiguous mixed-use “river walk” planning concept. One business’ seasonal outdoor dining area was totally submerged, as was part of Commercial St. near the construction of some new residential riverfront development. Soon, such extraordinary tidal heights will become more and more commonplace.

Merging so as to access the off ramp, I shuddered in recalling how a previous Bath city manager once championed the notion of constructing a ground level rotary connection to the bridge instead of replacing the elevated design of the viaduct. The concept was built on the premise that travelers would then be more apt to swing off Route 1 into Bath’s downtown rather than encouraged to speed onward north or south.

Already ahead of schedule, come summer 2017 Leeman Highway’s elevated portion will again be expediting travel past a vibrant downtown that has no real problems except providing ample parking for those that frequent its Main Street charms. If anything, a longer elevated section of Route 1 through Bath might be a long sought solution to the controversial chain link fence that not only divides Leeman Highway’s southern approach but also divides that unattractively developed section of the city.

What direction Maine’s coastal development takes cannot escape the very real limitations of the reality that Route 1 will never be an I-295, even despite its beautifully realized attempt between Brunswick and Bath.

The common political mantra is that Maine’s economic future is dependent on growing its population to provide a workforce for needed business development. How that can be successfully accomplished without providing adequate traffic accommodation, and while still retaining coastal Maine’s unique livability, is another reality ignored at great risk to our very notion of Vacationland, especially when we can’t even adequately transport our seasonal increase in motorists.

Charting an economic destination that sounds visionary while blind to our coastline’s unalterable geographic identity is as shortsighted as ignoring the ramifications of the Atlantic’s inevitable rise.

Gary Anderson lives in Bath.