I-95 interchange proposed for Waterville

January 10, 2011

WATERVILLE — Residents Tuesday are invited to comment on and ask questions about a proposal to build a new Interstate 95 interchange off Trafton Road.

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at The Center downtown.

If approved, the interchange would be built about mid-way between interchanges at Lyons Road, Sidney, and Kennedy Memorial Drive, Waterville, according to City Manager Michael Roy.

“The public hearing is on a proposal to submit an application for permission to develop an interchange,” Roy said Thursday. “We need state and federal approval to have an interchange built.”

Trafton Properties, located at the corner of West River and Trafton roads, wants an interchange built there. Trafton Properties owns the building that formerly was Wyandotte mill and now houses Mid-State Machine and other businesses.

A proposed interchange was approved by state, federal and city officials in the late 1980s, but city councilors a the time disagreed about whether it should be built at Trafton Road or Webb Road. Meanwhile, the project fell through because state was no longer in possession of the funding.

A city study/advisory committee has met three or four times since October to discuss the proposed interchange, as well as any alternatives to the Trafton Road site, according to Roy, who is a non-voting member of the panel. Councilors Rosemary J. Winslow, D-Ward 3, and John O’Donnell, D-Ward 5, also are members.

“The committee certainly is recommending that location (Trafton Road) and that’s really the point of the meeting — to get that message out to voters that this is a recommended site,” Roy said. “And we want to know what people think.”

David Bernhardt from the state Department of Transportation is expected to attend Tuesday’s hearing, according to Roy.

“The state is looking at it as an economic development project,” Roy said.

He said the process requires the city to develop a proposal and the state DOT would then present it to federal officials.

“The feds are the approving authority because it’s a federal highway, but the state has to do the application,” he said.

Roy estimated an interchange would cost between $6 and $7 million.

John Melrose, a consultant hired by Trafton Properties, said the company has 900 acres in and around Trafton Road and I-95 and it is an extremely unusual stretch of land. There are not many like it in southern and central Maine, according to Melrose, of Eaton Peabody Consulting Group, based in Augusta.

Melrose, former commissioner of the state DOT, said Trafton wants to market that property for distribution centers, warehousing and other such businesses that would benefit from an interchange.

He said the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, Central Maine Growth Council and Waterville Development Corp. all endorse the interchange, which would be about on the Waterville-Sidney line. The Sidney Board of Selectmen also endorses it, he said.

“Trafton Road would have to be upgraded, similar to Lyons Road — the state agrees that’s the case, Melrose said. “The city has indicated they’d entertain the cost of fixing up Trafton Road if development opportunities warrant it. That’s the assumption we’re operating under at this point.”

Melrose said the hope is to get approvals for the interchange within two years; Trafton would market the property with the promise of an interchange.

“The land on Trafton Road heading west is zoned industrial,” he said. “They’d like to replicate what they have along that road to attract more manufacturing jobs.”

He said there are several opportunities for funding an interchange.

“Trafton Properties is willing to say it would donate a right-of-way, which is usually a significant part of the cost,” he said.

He said the interchange would be designed according to what state and federal officials want. The cost would be determined and then a financial plan put together, he said.

Meanwhile, Roy said the interchange project is important from the city’s standpoint.

“This is our most developable part of the city,” he said. “Being as small as we are and having many properties already developed — that southern part of the city presents the most opportunities for us to see growth and development.”

Courtesy of the Morning Sentinel

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com