And they've already raised the tolls to pay for most of it.
We know this isn't true because the Turnpike Authority's financial statements are public documents:
"cash and Investment balances in the General Reserve Fund were designated as restricted and had balances of $117.7 million and $118 million as of December 31, 2025 and December 31, 2024, respectively."
Those are reserves for the entire Turnpike system, and their bond investors require them to keep a minimum balance in that fund to cover annual debt payments and maintenance expenses, so in practice, only a small fraction of these reserves would have been available to pay down the costs of a $500 million highway to Gorham.
And don't forget that the Gorham Turnpike would have had to add in roughly $25 million per year in new annual operations and maintenance costs, like plowing, sanding, and patching asphalt (assuming a 5 percent rate of maintenance needs as a proportion of the total capital costs).
But setting aside those details, I honestly think the Gorham turnpike would be a
great way to reduce traffic. Not for the reason you might assume – we already have an
entire century's worth of
data and
experience to prove that building highways is a massive subsidy for traffic that predictably – by the laws of supply and demand – invites people to drive more and cause more traffic congestion.
But the one and only thing that's proven to reduce traffic is making it more expensive to drive.
Maine already has the highest combined tolls and gas taxes in all of New England – gas tax in Massachusetts is only 24 cents/gallon, versus 30 cents here – because we've got so many more roads and highways than our sparsely-populated state can afford to maintain (and this deficit is getting bigger).
So yes, if Maine builds more roads, then taxes and tolls will absolutely need to increase, and driving will become less affordable.
That probably sounds bad to a lot of people, but – silver lining! – it does mean there will be a lot fewer cars on the road.
Ironically, this is one of the factors that led the Turnpike Authority to scuttle the Gorham Connector boondoggle – according to their traffic models, the tolls they would have needed to collect were going to be so expensive that a lot of drivers would have just ended up taking 114/22 anyhow, and their bond investors weren't willing to put up the money with so few people paying tolls.
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