12/21/04
Transportation Committee endorses
nearly $2 million worth of Cape projects
The Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee has endorsed nearly
$2 million in road-improvement projects for Cape Elizabeth to be included
in the Maine Department of Transportation's Biennial Transportation Improvement
Program for 2006-2007.
Included is more than $500,000 for a preventive maintenance wrap of Spurwink
Avenue, from the Spurwink Church to Pheasant Hill Road, a distance of 2.7
miles. The work is less extensive than the full-depth reconstruction the
Town applied for last spring, but more than the shim and overlay that is
being funded for other projects in town.
Also included is $350,000 for a traffic light, geometric modification and
pedestrian improvements for the intersection at Ocean House, Scott Dyer and
Shore roads in the Town Center.
In total, $1.89 million worth of projects would be accomplished with the
town paying $185,400 or 9.8 percent.
In a memo to the Town Council, Town Manager Michael McGovern said PACTS
endorsement is customarily tantamount to final approval, as MDOT provides
PACTS with a sum of money to allocate throughout the PACTS region.
Most of the recommendations would fund 85 percent of collector road improvement
projects. Other applications gaining PACTS endorsement are shim and overlay
of Shore Road from Fort Williams to Ocean House Road, 2.2 miles ($230,000);
and shim and overlay of Sawyer Road from Fickett Street to Eastman Road,
.8 miles ($84,000).
Also included is more than $650,000 to shim and overlay Route 77 from the
Grange Hall at Charles E. Jordan Road, to the Church of the Nazarene across
from Old Ocean House Road. No local share is required for this arterial project.
The MDOT funding, except for the arterial improvement, requires acceptance
by a vote of the Town Council. In the early 1990s, PACTS had endorsed funding
for a traffic signal at Scott Dyer, Ocean House and Shore roads, but it was
turned down by the council.
Missing from PACTS endorsements for the 2006-2007 biennial was a request
from the Town to fund a $168,000 traffic light and related improvements at
the intersection of Ocean House Road and Cape Elizabeth High School.
The light is part of the approved site plan for renovations currently taking
place at the High School.
Last April, when the Town Council voted to apply to PACTS for funding, councilors
said they would amend the 2005 school bond to pay for the traffic light if
PACTS failed to endorse it. The amount would be re-paid by the municipal
budget over the next five years. "A formal resolution authorizing the bond
amendment is to be approved by the town council prior to the bond issuance,"
according to minutes of the April 12, 2004 Town Council meeting.
The order goes on to say that the light would be paid for through unspent
funds from the current $7.9 million High School renovation bond if that project
is under budget.
Interim School Superintendent Robert Lyman said that due to the fluctuating
nature of the High School renovation, with several change-orders already
taken place, the School Department will not have a "bottom line" on the project
budget until well into the 2005-2006 school year. The School's Building Committee
has a list of 13 "alternate" tasks, totaling more than $369,000, put on hold
because of a tight budget.
He said the School Board will apply to the state's Revolving Renovation Fund
in hopes of including some of these alternates in the project. The traffic
light is not among them, Lyman said
The School Department was successful last year in securing $200,000 from
the fund for the Pond Cove Elementary School addition approved by voters
along with the High School renovation in November 2003, as well as an $800,000
interest-free loan for Pond Cove the project.
McGovern's memo says that he informed the PACTS Policy Committee that the
high school intersection is a higher priority for Cape Elizabeth, but the
numbers that PACTS generated showed the Scott Dyer/Shore/Ocean House Road
intersection to have greater need.
McGovern said funding for the High School traffic light will likely be discussed
at the Town Council and School Board budget workshop Jan. 4. It may also
come up at future Planning Board review of the Cape Commerce Center proposed
for 349 Ocean House Road, next to the High School entrance. Preliminary plans
for the development, which includes office space and a Dunkin' Donuts shop,
call for traffic to exit onto the High School drive to a signaled intersection.
However, no formal application has been made yet for the project.
Previous stories:
|
