Archived News

No surprise here – two sections of the Eastern Trail were among 6 trails recognized as family-friendly community bike trails in Maine, according to the 4/30 Portland Press Herald. 

Scarborough Marsh – “This trail is a lot of fun for birding enthusiasts if you want to make frequent stops to look at the marsh birds. The smooth, packed-gravel surface and lack of hills on this path make for a very easy and pleasant ride with kids.”

Greenbelt Walkway in South Portland – “The diversity of sights along this trail is fun – from a view of the water and lovely backyard gardens (the trail abuts quite a few homes) to the woods and open fields. And Mill Creek Park and Bug Light are great spots for a picnic lunch.”

Check out the full article here.

Amtrak’s Downeaster welcomed as seasonal economic boost

By Faith Gillman Staff writer |  Posted: Friday, December 26, 2014

KENNEBUNK -The last time a train stopped at the station on Depot Road in Kennebunk, Lyndon Johnson was president. That same year “Downtown” by Petula Clark, and The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride” were at the top of the Billboard charts. 

Fifty years have passed since riders were able to hop on a train in Kennebunk. But now that a seasonal stop on Amtrak’s Downeaster line has been approved for the town, passengers will soon be able to ride the rails and visit downtown and neighboring areas from Kennebunk once again – providing, supporters hope, a welcome seasonal economic boost.

Plans to bring the train back are well under way, according to Mat Eddy, Kennebunk’s economic development director. 

“We got the green light from Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (in May 2014) and hired Sebago Technics to do a conceptual drawing,” said Eddy. “We will have a 300-foot platform (that) will allow for bicycles to be loaded and unloaded at the stop.”

When the train does stop, it will do so at Kennebunk’s original station, which is now home to Dietz Associates, a design and advertising firm. The building and the business are owned by Tim and Kathy Dietz of Kennebunk. The town is negotiating a lease with Dietz Associates, which will continue its operations from the depot, but will offer space in the building for ticket sales and a waiting room for passengers. Tim Dietz is onboard with the project.

“We do want it for the town and for us,” said Dietz. “Kathy and I are delighted to have the building come back to its original use. We love this building. It’s exciting for it to be the focus of activity, and everyone involved has been working well together.”

Dietz, who is a bit of a history buff, did a considerable amount of research on the building to find out as much as he could about its history. 

“The foundation for the station was laid in 1872,” said Dietz, “which was discovered at the Brick Store Museum while reading the day-to-day diary of Andrew Walker (Kennebunk’s town clerk during the mid-19th century). And at one time the stationmaster here was given an award for the most beautiful garden of any train station. Kennebunk was spelled in flowers in the garden.”

Read the entire article online here

Posted: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 9:42 pm | Updated: 9:44 pm, Wed Dec 10, 2014.

By Kate Irish Collins kcollins@keepmecurrent.com

SCARBOROUUGH – It’s been at least seven years since town leaders in Scarborough first began talking about making Oak Hill more walkable.

Now, the town’s Ad Hoc Transportation Committee is hoping to get the final designs for upgrading the intersection by enhancing crosswalks and making changes to better address pedestrian and motorist safety in early 2015.

In a memo sent to the Town Council recently, the committee said its goal is to get the final engineering plan in February and then put the project out to bid in either late February or early March, with a completion date of mid-June.

Town Planner Dan Bacon said this week that $300,000 collected through the assessment of impact fees on development projects in Oak Hill will be used to pay for the improvements, which include new crosswalk striping and the construction of “pedestrian refugee islands.”

The other elements of the project include installing new pedestrian signals that would prohibit right-hand turns when the button is pushed, increased lighting, construction of a sidewalk and the narrowing of the entrance to the Citgo station along Black Point Road.

The project also calls for the elimination of the right-hand turn lane heading southbound on U.S. Route 1 and the construction of a rumble strip in the left-hand turn lane heading northbound on Route 1. The goal of the rumble strip is to lessen the number of car accidents happening at the intersection of Route 1 and Fairfield Road, near the fire station.

This project will complement work that’s already been done, including the construction of a sidewalk along Black Point Road to connect the Eastern Trail to Oak Hill, a flashing crosswalk sign at the intersection of the Eastern Trail and Black Point Road, the installation of sidewalks and crosswalks between Route 1 and Hannaford Drive and traffic-calming islands and crosswalk improvements at the intersection of Hannaford Drive and Gorham Road.

In addition, the Transportation Committee said, the town has secured another $440,000 in funding from the Maine Department of Transportation, under its Safe Routes to School program, to expand the current sidewalk network in Oak Hill from the school campus up Gorham Road to Sawyer Road and to the Oak Hill Plaza.

The Transportation Committee was established by the Town Council in 2012 to work on pedestrian and safety improvements in and around Oak Hill. However, construction on those upgrades was put off while the town dealt with other road projects, including the reconstruction in Dunstan Corner and on Pleasant Hill Road.

Read the entire article online here

MaineDOT Commissioner Bernhardt signed a new policy on June 14th, 2014 that outlines important elements of Maine’s improved project planning and development processes. Complete Streets policies have a foundation in federal law, guidance, and best practices, and have been signed into law or policy in states and communities throughout the nation.

The MaineDOT Complete Streets Policy, developed in 2013 and 2014 through extensive internal and external stakeholder processes, outlines how MaineDOT and its project partners will consider the needs of all users when planning and developing projects. The intent of this policy is to help ensure that all users of Maine’s transportation system—our customers—including bicyclists, pedestrians, people of all ages and abilities, transit users, and motor vehicle users, have safe and efficient access to the transportation system.

The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) has a long history of providing for the needs of all modes of travel in the planning, programming, design, rehabilitation, maintenance, and construction of the state’s transportation system. This policy is intended to improve Maine’s project delivery processes to help improve and maintain a safe, reliable, and efficient transportation system that supports the mobility and economic needs of our state.

The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) has a long history of providing for the needs of all modes of travel in the planning, programming, design, rehabilitation, maintenance, and construction of the state’s transportation system.   This policy is intended to improve Maine’s project delivery processes to help improve and maintain a safe, reliable, and efficient transportation system that supports the mobility and economic needs of our state.

The following is a link to the policy:

• MaineDOT Complete Streets Policy

The following is a link to the MaineDOT Complete Streets web page, which also has links to many related policies, laws, rules, guides, and training programs.

http://www.maine.gov/mdot/completestreets/

Dan Stewart
MaineDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager
Bureau of Planning
Outreach Division
Maine Department of Transportation
16 State House Station
Augusta ME 04333
207-624-3252
E-mail: dan.stewart@maine.gov
Web:http://www.maine.gov/mdot/bikeped/

By Michael Kelley, Staff Writer. May 30, 2014, The Scarborough Leader.

Officials from the Eastern Trail Management District have long dreamed of a time when a bicyclist, runner or walker could continuously travel off-road from the Piscataqua River in Kittery to Casco Bay in South Portland. Now, thanks to funding from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS), that dream is a little bit closer to happening.

The communities of Scarborough and South Portland recently received $350,000 from PACTS to extend the Eastern Trail from Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough to Wainwright Field in South Portland. The .8 mile trail, once completed, will go from Wainwright Field through the woods past Prouts Pond along Central Maine Power property before connecting to Pleasant Hill Road.

“We have advertised this as a trail between Kittery and Casco Bay and with this, now we are getting closer and closer to making that a reality,” said Eastern Trail Management District President Tad Redway.

The Eastern Trail passes through a dozen communities in York and Cumberland counties and is part of the East Coast Greenway, a 2,900-mile corridor that spans Maine to Florida.

Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon said the total cost of the project is $531,000. The remainder of the funding comes from money South Portland had already set aside for trail expansion.

“There was already money waiting to be used, but not enough for the entire .8 miles,” Bacon said.

Bacon said the plan is to finalize designs and get permitting approval this summer and fall and start construction in late fall or early winter. The money, Bacon said, was not supposed to be available for another year or two, but given the fact money had already been appropriated and PACTS had some money left over in its fiscal budget, the organization decided to use some of that money to fund the project.

The trail expansion project, Bacon said, coincides with a two-year project by the Maine Department of Transportation and the Scarborough Department of Public Works to reconstruct Pleasant Hill Road and make it more pedestrian friendly.

Read the entire article online here

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By Shelby Carignan, Staff Writer. Friday, May 30, 2014. The Forecaster.

SCARBOROUGH — Officials confirmed that the town has received enough funding to begin closing the gap in the Eastern Trail between South Portland and Scarborough.

Though the $376,000 from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System will not complete the 1.5-mile section from the Nonesuch River in Scarborough to Wainwright Athletic Complex in South Portland, it green-lights construction on a smaller segment just under a mile long from Wainwright to Pleasant Hill Road. 

Construction will likely begin late this year or early in 2015.

Nearly a third of the pedestrian and bike trail, which extends 65 miles from Bug Light Park in South Portland to Kittery, is completely off-road, according to Robert Hamblen, president of the Eastern Trail Alliance. The ultimate goal is to connect the entire trail via pedestrian pathways. 

The segment from Arundel to South Portland is 85 percent off-road, with the two most prominent interruptions remaining between Saco and Biddeford, and Scarborough and South Portland. The Maine Department of Transportation has studied plans to close those gaps, and determined that both require bridges.

“Both of them are expensive, but we firmly believe both will happen,” Hamblen said. “They’ve just both been laying there waiting for funding to make it possible.”

Read the entire article online here.

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Nearly 20 years of expansion has proven successful, and more is on the way.

Sunday, May 25, 12:01 A.M.

Pennsylvania trail guru Carl Knoch said it takes decades to build an off-road, long-distance bike path through urban areas.

In southern Maine it’s been nearly 17 years since the Eastern Trail was launched. And as we close in on two decades of work, the effort behind this urban trail has gained ground, quite literally.

I can attest to that, having spent the past decade waiting for the Eastern Trail Alliance, the nonprofit behind the trail’s development, to make it worth my while as a long-distance cyclist.

Four years ago the Eastern Trail Alliance founder, John Andrews, promised me they’d get me an off-road commuter route from my home in Kennebunkport to Portland. True to his word, it happened a year later when the Eastern Trail bicycle-and-pedestrian bridges were built over Route 1 and Interstate 95, and five miles of trails were added between Kennebunk and Old Orchard Beach.

Andrews and his band of bicyclists have proven relentless. And this summer they’re not slowing as they fan out across this trail that now covers 20.7 miles to conduct an economic-impact study to help build support to expand the trail to Wells, South Berwick, Eliot and Kittery.

Not bad for an idea formed less than two decades ago.

In 2001, when I arrived at the Maine Sunday Telegram, all that existed of the trail was a 5-mile section in South Portland. But there was talk of expanding it as far as Kittery. And all I could think was, how likely is that?

On the other hand, you had to agree it was a good idea. So Staff Photographer Greg Rec and I saddled up our road bikes with reporting and photography equipment, and set out to cover the 70-plus miles of the proposed trail that had just been marked along the roads that followed the proposed off-road route.

We started at dawn from the Route 1 bridge over the Piscataqua River in Kittery and rode to dusk, taking photographs along the way and finishing at Bug Light in South Portland, where an editor ferried us back to our cars. Then as we each drove north from the Piscataqua River as the sun set, I worried we’d both fall asleep at the wheel. But I also recalled the sight of old barns, rocky brooks, wildflower fields and birch tree groves. Suddenly I saw this crazy idea anew.

Read the Entire Article Online Here.

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