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Help is on the way for truckers in northern Maine carrying freight along an obstacle course of 150 residential and commercial driveways, 25 intersections, 12 crosswalks, nine stoplights, pedestrians, cyclists and a rail crossing on U.S. Route 1.

A two-lane rural highway with varying speed limits traversing small communities, farmland and forests, U.S. 1 is the primary road for the entire northern half of Maine, linking the north end of Interstate 95 in Houlton near the eastern border with Canada to the far northern reaches of the state.

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently selected the freight bottleneck on Main Street (U.S. Route 1) in Presque Isle for a $44 million grant to build a 6.6-mile-long truck bypass south of the city.

The two-lane bypass will complete a current section already in service and feature a new interchange at U.S. 1 and Conant Road, truck climbing lanes, box culverts and four new overpasses to grade separate the bypass from the rail line and three roads. Rumble strips will be installed along shoulders to warn motorists against veering out of their lane.

“There is a significant amount of truck traffic on Main Street considering it is Route 1,” Martin Puckett, deputy city manager for Presque Isle, told Transport Topics. “Being a service center community, our population triples and our traffic counts are even higher. A large portion is traveling north or south to get to a destination, not stopping for services.”

Puckett said trucks encounter difficulties navigating traffic patterns and commuters as well as making difficult east/west road turns.

“Main Street continually ranks at the top of crash data in the county and eight locations in the three-mile stretch exceed Maine Department of Transportation standards,” he said. “Reducing traffic would help reduce the amount of crashes and improve pedestrian safety for our historic downtown.”

MDOT has stated that the project will also increase safety for an Amish community in the region around Presque Isle whose members frequently commute via horse and buggy. “Changes to roads in the region will reflect the concerns of the Amish to ensure they are able to safely share the road with motor vehicles,” MDOT stated.

For over 20 years, MDOT officials have considered building a bypass around Presque Isle (an old lumber town 75 miles south of the Canadian border) where nearly 16,000 vehicles pass through daily.

“Being an area that relies on the agricultural and forestry industries, the bypass supports the economy and improves the traffic conditions in the downtown to make it more pedestrian friendly,” Puckett said.

The new truck bypass will speed up transportation times for northern Maine freight, including for time-sensitive perishables.

MDOT noted in its grant application that US 1 is a ranked Priority 1 road equal to interstates and the Maine Turnpike. Presque Isle is located in Aroostook County, the state’s dominant freight producer in 2015, shipping 8.5 million tons and receiving 8.7 million tons of goods from other counties and states.

Great news for Washington County! A $33 million grant will rehabilitate a nearly 70-mile stretch of Route 1 between Machias and Calais. By adding wider shoulders, rumble strips, and other safety measures, this new segment of road will reduce crashes.https://t.co/tLtmXXbVeq

Today’s congestion on the Presque Isle freight corridor is exacerbated by large volumes of raw materials (potatoes and tree logs) trucked from north and west of the city to a potato processing plant and tree logs going east to a nearby engineered woods plant. Aroostook County is the top potato grower in Maine.

“Some potatoes are shipped as harvested, while many are transported to local processors to be made into potato chips and french fries, which are then shipped throughout the eastern U.S. Farmers, processors and distributors rely on an efficient regional road system as an integral part of their ‘conveyor belt,’ ” according to MDOT.

When complete, the truck bypass will result in a reduction of 544 trucks in annual average daily truck traffic downtown in the first year, including those carrying hazardous materials such as bleach and diesel fuel.

The bypass will be designed as a very limited access road with fencing and well-designed animal pass-throughs to minimize conflicts with regional wildlife due to the large animals that roam there.

MDOT stated that although the Presque Isle project does not address truck parking, the bypass will have wide shoulders in areas to provide space for trucks to pull over briefly to check safety issues in a secure manner while allowing enough space for motorists to remain safely moving and unaffected.

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) noted Sept. 29 that in addition to an Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant for the Presque Isle project, Maine will receive $33 million to rehabilitate 68 miles of U.S. 1 between Machias and Calais.

“The reconstruction will include widening shoulders, replacing drainage structures and making safety enhancements such as installing new guardrails and rumble strips. These measures are intended to significantly reduce the number of lane departure crashes, which are a known problem in this corridor,” Collins said.

She said an improved roadway will strengthen connections between communities and improve efficient freight movements given the proximity to an international land border and seaport.

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