Portland - General Infrastructure

[nomc]

Feel free to move my post into a different thread if it seems more appropriate elsewhere - but it seemed like a general infrastructure thread would be a good addition regardless (didn't seem like one existed in at least the last 8 pages).

Portland just started using FlashVote in order to get more/better feedback/input from residents about the city. The latest survey they sent out was about transportation - here are the answers I found interesting:

 

[markhb]

Dang... I would have liked to take that one but it ended at 1 Am this morning!

 

[nomc]

Anyone know when they plan to slide the bridge just north of Exit 9 on 295 into place? I hope someone does a time lapse - would love to see the whole process.

 

[Max]

It was supposed to happen in the fall but they postponed it to the spring because of some issues procuring all the materials.

MaineDOT

The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) is a cabinet-level state agency with primary responsibility for statewide transportation by all modes of travel. Our mission is to responsibly provide our customers the safest and most reliable transportation system possible, given available...

verandaplan.org

 

[nomc]

Thanks - had no idea they had a website and a great camera!

 

[nomc]

A few slides below from a poll Portland put out in Jan/Mar on biking/bike paths. The whole thing can be found here, including an interactive map of the bikeway ideas submitted through that process. They've just released a new poll looking for input on specific projects.

 

[DanielPWM19]

Does anyone think these areas would benefit from additional exits?

I was driving down Warren to Riverside to 302 for an appointment yesterday at 4:30PM and the traffic was insane. It surprises me there isn't an I:95 exit at least near the Riverside Hannaford. Everyone has to funnel through to the Westbrook exit.

Portland needs more traffic circles in general too.

 

[PWMFlyer]

The one thing I could not understand from a engineered design was going from the Falmouth Spur to 295 south. Get off drive through Falmouth backed up traffic at the fire station then onto 295. They could have built a connector directly onto 295 South 20-30 years ago...

 

[cneal]

Not gonna happen. MaineDOT's gas tax revenues are declining while its costs are increasing steeply. They had to get a $100 million bailout from the state's general fund last year, and they still even afford to maintain the roads and bridges they already have - much less spend tens of millions of dollars on new roads or highway exits. Its current leader, Bruce Van Note, is like a deer in the headlights on this; the agency has no credible plans to deal with its structural deficits which grow bigger every year, and because of that, it's getting harder and more expensive for the state to sell bonds for highway projects, since MaineDOT is seen as at risk for defaulting on its mounting debts.

Besides, new interchanges never reduce traffic - they just shift it around (feel free to try and show me one example of a new highway project that reduced regional traffic congestion - there aren't any). Adding new exits means adding more traffic lights on the local streets that already, as you note, have too many cars on them, and more opportunities for traffic-stopping crashes on the mainlines of the interstates.

 

[markhb]

The only one of the three indicated that I think would be a real benefit would be an Exit 50 at Forest Ave. (or onto the Riverside Industrial Pkwy close to Forest). That would help alleviate a lot of the traffic on Riverside heading for 302 (you thought it was bad recently? Try on a Friday afternoon in the summer.), as well as truck traffic that has to make the too-tight right onto Forest to get to the industrial park. Beyond that, I don't see that any added exits on the Turnpike would add value. (Were your red circles out of alignment with the map? They're in kind of odd places.)

Definitely a reconfiguration of I-295 Exit 11 to allow direct access southbound from the Turnpike into Portland would be in order; a northbound loop would be as well (I think there's still room there but I don't know if much blasting would be needed; witness the rock walls alongside the loop from the Spur to 295 NB).

 

[nomc]

They had to get a $100 million bailout from the state's general fund last year, and they still even afford to maintain the roads and bridges they already have - much less spend tens of millions of dollars on new roads or highway exits. Its current leader, Bruce Van Note, is like a deer in the headlights on this; the agency has no credible plans to deal with its structural deficits which grow bigger every year, and because of that, it's getting harder and more expensive for the state to sell bonds for highway projects, since MaineDOT is seen as at risk for defaulting on its mounting debts.

I've gotten in the habit of looking up at the hunks of concrete missing on most of the bridges on 295. I like to think the missing bits dissolve slowly - instead of the chunks just falling down. At least give us some nets.

Any creative ideas we can pull from other states to increase revenues?

 

[nomc]

Anyone know when they plan to slide the bridge just north of Exit 9 on 295 into place? I hope someone does a time lapse - would love to see the whole process.

Did anyone go see this over the weekend? The PPH has a great time lapse of one of the decks being slid into place. I see the bridge was back open around 7:30am - way ahead of schedule, was supposed to open by 2pm!

 

[nomc]

Over 200 Portland streetlights need repair; outlook dim for quick fix

In this article the reporter says: "Fixes to cobrahead lights require a special license and must be outsourced. Repairs to the decorative lights can be made by qualified city staff."

Does anyone know why cobrahead lights need a special license to be fixed? Why can't city staff handle this? I can't find any info about why this would be - it looks like you can easily buy these lights online for a few hundred.

 

[markhb]

Does anyone know why cobrahead lights need a special license to be fixed? Why can't city staff handle this? I can't find any info about why this would be - it looks like you can easily buy these lights online for a few hundred.

I'm guessing because those are the new smart LED lights? I'm not an electrician but maybe some of that stuff needs additional endorsements or something?

 

[Cosakita18]

Does anyone know why cobrahead lights need a special license to be fixed? Why can't city staff handle this? I can't find any info about why this would be - it looks like you can easily buy these lights online for a few hundred.

For the same reason that farmers can't fix their own John Deere tractors anymore without getting an official John Deere tech to work on it. Companies lock down their products with proprietary / DRM controls so that they have increased control over fixes / upgrades / re-installs.

Just another reason why "smart cities" tech isn't always the solution. Sometimes the best lightbulb is a regular old lightbulb.

 

[TC_zoid]

I can just FEEL the excessive RUSH charges for this. And Gov has no problem paying, as it's not their personal money.

 

[NR2Portland]

Anyone have any idea if the extension of 295 into Gorham will be approved? Got out of work and had to get from Portland to Gorham and it took me over an hour!! 114 and 22 were backed up because they’re really the only roads to get back to a growing suburb of Portland, Gorham. That highway they’ve been talking about building for years is more needed than ever!
If anyone has details please share along!

 

[PWMFlyer]

The City of Portland voted to show their non support of the bypass. They want the Turnpike to reconsider and use mass transit.

 

[markhb]

The Gorham Connector won't pass through Portland so the city council's vote is really just posturing. Strictly speaking, the Connector won't be an extension of 295; it'll run off of the far end of the new Exit 45 (Maine Mall Rd.) bridge. We'll see what happens but I don't foresee Scarborough or Gorham complaining.

 

[mainejeff]

Buses suck. Until "mass transit" includes some type of rail....forget about it.

And to add to this....I wonder how EVs will effect thinking on mass transit? Yes, battery disposal is an issue although they are building a recycling center next to the Tesla battery factory in Nevada. If battery disposal can be solved.....I see that as a major blow to mass transit in some areas like Maine where the population density and geography work against a major mass transit push.