Cars on Running Hill Road in Scarborough in 2024. The Gorham Connector is intended to relieve commuter traffic in this area, though the plan could be scrapped if lawmakers revoke approval. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald, file

Opponents of the proposed Gorham Connector took their fight to the State House on Thursday, hoping to undo prior legislation that paved the way for the Maine Turnpike Authority to plan and build the now-controversial $331 million highway spur.

The Legislature’s transportation committee heard three hours of testimony on LD 1020, a bill that would repeal previous laws directing the authority to plan and build a toll highway extension from South Portland to Gorham.

It also would order the agency to sell any land purchased for the project to the previous owners or give it to the municipalities where the properties are located. The authority has spent $6.3 million on 15 properties totaling 340 acres, or about 30% of the 50 parcels the authority would need to complete the project.

The bill’s supporters said they want to fully extinguish the connector proposal, even as the MTA last month enlisted the Maine Department of Transportation to conduct a review of alternative solutions to traffic congestion in towns west of Portland. The department and others opposed to the bill said the connector should be preserved as an option to be considered in the department’s review.

Sen. Stacey Brenner, D-Scarborough, the bill’s primary sponsor, said the connector is an outdated and costly proposal that would do little to fix commuter congestion, worsen suburban sprawl and vehicle emissions, displace homes, and destroy wetlands, farmlands and forests.

Brenner also noted that traffic counts dropped in the wake of the pandemic, in part because more people are working from home.

“The costs far outweigh the benefits,” Brenner told the committee. “We need to let this highway option go.”

Robb Cotiaux, president of the local Trout Unlimited chapter, urged the committee to support the bill to protect the Red Brook watershed, which stretches from Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook to the Maine Mall area in South Portland.

Gorham Town Councilor Lou Simms said the connector proposal should be abandoned and affected communities should take a more collaborative approach to finding alternative solutions to traffic congestion and residential sprawl.

Myles Smith, a leader of Mainers for Smarter Transportation, said the public has been misled on the benefits of the connector proposal, which would shave an average of four minutes off rush-hour commutes.

When a committee member, Rep. Wayne Parry, R-Arundel, questioned Smith’s data, he said it came from an MTA study. The authority’s spokesperson, Erin Courtney, clarified later that the connector would save some rush-hour commuters more than 10 minutes of travel time.

Courtney also said the authority has spent $18 million so far planning and developing the connector proposal, but it was taking no position on whether the road should be built and the project isn’t on its current work plan.

Leading testimony against LD 1020 was Deputy Transportation Commissioner Dale Doughty, who said the connector proposal should remain in the department’s toolbox as it studies all commuter congestion solutions in its upcoming review.

“Everything should be on the table,” Doughty said. Repealing the connector’s authorization “presupposes the result of the study.”

Doughty also said the department opposes forcing the turnpike authority to sell property it has purchased for the connector, saying that the land is protected while the study is underway. Supporters of the bill acknowledged that the order to sell may warrant amending and that the land may be useful for other community and regional transit purposes, such as a recreational path.

In the planning stages for more than 20 years, the spur would run from the recently rebuilt turnpike Exit 45 in South Portland, through Westbrook and Scarborough, to the Gorham Bypass at Route 114 in Gorham. The town councils in Scarborough and Westbrook have withdrawn their support for the project in recent months.

SUPPORT IN QUESTION

Gorham Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak stood to “strongly express” the town’s opposition to the bill because growth and traffic congestion are major community issues.

“All solutions and options (should) remain on the table,” Paraschak told the committee. “We continue to be a willing partner with everyone.”

Kelly Flagg, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of Maine, also spoke against the bill, saying the connector has strong community support.

However, a recent MTA poll found that 45% of respondents said they oppose (12%) or strongly oppose (33%) the connector, while 40% said they support (20%) or strongly support (20%) building the road.

The authority announced in March that it had asked the department of transportation to lead a two-year study that will include reviewing how the pandemic changed some of the underlying reasons for the 5-mile, four-lane toll highway extension.

The decision followed a year of community conflict over the connector proposal and growing negative feedback “from the public and civic leaders who have called for a broader, more holistic and multimodal approach to addressing the region’s mobility challenges,” the authority said in a statement.

The study will be completed in 2026.