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Log inAUGUSTA: I-295 project trucks breaking city rules
AUGUSTA: I-295 project trucks breaking city rules
by Outspoken on Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:11 am
AUGUSTA: I-295 project trucks breaking city rules
BY KEITH EDWARDS
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA -- Dump trucks steadily rumbling between the ongoing Interstate 295 reconstruction and Pike Industries' pit in the Summerhaven area are running beyond the hours of operation allowed by city ordinance.
And it appears they will continue to do so, starting as early as 4:30 a.m., according to state Transportation Commissioner David Cole.
Because they can.
And they must, Cole said, in order to finish the project on time.
Further, operating the pit "at potentially all hours" is an option, too, Cole said.
The project calls for 180,000 tons of pavement to be laid in about 15 weeks -- about 65 percent of it coming from Summerhaven.
City Manager William Bridgeo said residents have complained about the increased truck traffic to and from Pike's large pit and asphalt plant off Sanford Road.
The complaints especially target the hours the trucks have been coming: They are beyond the hours allowed in a city ordinance that bans truck traffic in the area between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
A steady flow of trucks are coming off the interstate, onto Route 27, Summerhaven Road and Sanford Road, as well as taking other routes to the pit, filling up with fresh asphalt and heading back to the job site on the southbound lanes of I-295 between Gardiner and Topsham.
Bridgeo said the state is essentially invoking its right to override local ordinances, as completing the project is in the public interest.
"The state has exercised their right to override local ordinance as to the hours of operation," Bridgeo said.
"It's onerous. It's burdensome. But we have very limited opportunity to influence it," Bridgeo said. "We've done what we can."
Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, confirmed the state has invoked its right to override local law -- for the greater public good.
Cole, in a letter to the city, said he understood there had been consideration, in Augusta, of issuing traffic citations to contractors working on the project for violating the time limits in the city's ordinance.
"Although we empathize with the residents in the area and wish that more explicit advance notice had been provided, we are hopeful this letter will explain why the projects need to be done as planned and why it would not be appropriate to cite our contractors," Cole said in his letter to the city.
"This project compressed two or three years worth of work with partial lane closures into a portion of a single season with a complete southbound closure," Cole's letter continues. "This was designed to forward the public interest of having this massive and important interstate project done safer, quicker, cheaper and better. As a state project, the public interest must prevail, though everyone understands and is trying to minimize the impacts to the Summerhaven area residents."
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5218388.html
Staff photo by Joe Phelan
BY KEITH EDWARDS
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal
AUGUSTA -- Dump trucks steadily rumbling between the ongoing Interstate 295 reconstruction and Pike Industries' pit in the Summerhaven area are running beyond the hours of operation allowed by city ordinance.
And it appears they will continue to do so, starting as early as 4:30 a.m., according to state Transportation Commissioner David Cole.
Because they can.
And they must, Cole said, in order to finish the project on time.
Further, operating the pit "at potentially all hours" is an option, too, Cole said.
The project calls for 180,000 tons of pavement to be laid in about 15 weeks -- about 65 percent of it coming from Summerhaven.
City Manager William Bridgeo said residents have complained about the increased truck traffic to and from Pike's large pit and asphalt plant off Sanford Road.
The complaints especially target the hours the trucks have been coming: They are beyond the hours allowed in a city ordinance that bans truck traffic in the area between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
A steady flow of trucks are coming off the interstate, onto Route 27, Summerhaven Road and Sanford Road, as well as taking other routes to the pit, filling up with fresh asphalt and heading back to the job site on the southbound lanes of I-295 between Gardiner and Topsham.
Bridgeo said the state is essentially invoking its right to override local ordinances, as completing the project is in the public interest.
"The state has exercised their right to override local ordinance as to the hours of operation," Bridgeo said.
"It's onerous. It's burdensome. But we have very limited opportunity to influence it," Bridgeo said. "We've done what we can."
Mark Latti, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, confirmed the state has invoked its right to override local law -- for the greater public good.
Cole, in a letter to the city, said he understood there had been consideration, in Augusta, of issuing traffic citations to contractors working on the project for violating the time limits in the city's ordinance.
"Although we empathize with the residents in the area and wish that more explicit advance notice had been provided, we are hopeful this letter will explain why the projects need to be done as planned and why it would not be appropriate to cite our contractors," Cole said in his letter to the city.
"This project compressed two or three years worth of work with partial lane closures into a portion of a single season with a complete southbound closure," Cole's letter continues. "This was designed to forward the public interest of having this massive and important interstate project done safer, quicker, cheaper and better. As a state project, the public interest must prevail, though everyone understands and is trying to minimize the impacts to the Summerhaven area residents."
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5218388.html
Staff photo by Joe Phelan
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