Maine has approximately 8,800 miles of state-jurisdiction highways and ~ 2,800 state-jurisdiction bridges and minor spans. To put that number of miles into perspective, the diameter of the earth through its center is 7,926 miles! MaineDOT manages nearly 40 percent of all road miles in Maine which carry almost 90 percent of the total vehicle miles traveled in our state.
For many decades, the backlog in maintaining, repairing, and modernizing Maine’s transportation system has been underfunded by more than $200 million annually. In 2020, the State Legislature authorized a Blue-Ribbon Commission to quantify the shortfall and provide options for lawmakers to consider. The first commission published the report and unanimously agreed that the estimated total annual transportation shortfall is $232 million.
What’s at stake?
In the First Session of the 131st Legislature, members of the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation recommended the state general fund budget allocate additional revenue from the sales tax revenue from automobiles and automobile parts to fill the transportation funding gap and that was passed and signed into law by Governor Mills.
Now it’s time to ensure that funding remains intact and Maine starts planning to address the decades of deferred maintenance with additional funds.
How would you rate Maine’s roads and bridges?
The Maine Chapter of the American Society for Civil Engineers used public data to analyze the current condition of Maine’s infrastructure. In the 2020 report, Maine Roads received a grade of D. You can read the full report online by clicking here.
Here’s an interesting fact from the ASCE Report Card: “Maine motorists spend at least an extra $1 billion per year in vehicle operating costs, congestion, and crashes with the state producing the highest fatality rate in New England.”
TRIP, a National Transportation Research Non-Profit, reported in 2021 that a total of 44% of Maine’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.
What can you do? Sign the petition to protect the funding for Maine’s transportation infrastructure and show support for additional funding to address the backlog.
Link to MaineDOT’s Workplan Multimedia Presentation
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