A car drives down Running Hill Road in Scarborough on Oct. 15. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald file

As public dissent rose last summer against the proposed Gorham Connector and the Maine Turnpike Authority decided to pause — but not drop — plans for the highway spur west of Portland, the agency commissioned a $23,000 poll to better gauge how residents felt about it.

The results, made public here after a request by the Press Herald, were unsurprising to those who have been fighting the project for a year and now are campaigning to dissolve the MTA.

Among 350 people interviewed last August by Peak Insights, a Montana-based public opinion research firm, 86% said it “doesn’t matter” that the 5-mile, four-lane toll road could shave at least 10 minutes off morning and evening commutes; 6% said a shorter commute is “a benefit worth considering” and 3% said they “need more information.”

Opinions on whether the project should proceed were closer, with 45% of respondents saying they oppose (12%) or strongly oppose (33%) the connector, while 40% said they support (20%) or strongly support (20%) building the 5-mile, four-lane toll road.

An additional 15% said they didn’t have an opinion about the controversial $331 million project that was put on hold last July.

“I’m not surprised they found more people are opposed to it,” said Myles Smith, a leader of Mainers for Smarter Transportation, a group that is fighting the connector.

“Support for the connector has been going down since the MTA announced the preferred route last year,” said Smith, who wasn’t surveyed. “From the beginning, the MTA has been trying to sell the public on doing the only thing they can do — which is building new roads — not the solutions that the public really wants.”

In the planning stages for more than 20 years, the spur would run from the recently rebuilt turnpike Exit 45 in South Portland, through Westbrook and Scarborough, to the Gorham Bypass at Route 114 in Gorham. Scarborough’s town council withdrew its support in October.

The top reason given for opposing the connector was concern that some property owners could be forced to sell land for the project (38%), followed by environmental impacts (27%) and worsening suburban sprawl (15%). Respondents were given several options to choose from.

OUTDATED, OVERSIZED SOLUTION

Smith and other opponents say the connector is an outdated and oversized solution to commuter traffic congestion that occurs at limited times in certain areas. They say it would be better addressed with smaller, less expensive improvements to existing roads, such as roundabouts and bike lanes, and improved public transportation.

Smith also questions whether the authority is allowed to spend turnpike revenue on polling to help promote the connector. State law limits MTA expenditures to the construction, maintenance, repair and operation of the highway and its access roads.

Erin Courtney, MTA spokesperson, said the poll was simply a means to measure public sentiment about the connector.

“This was used as an internal tool to help us understand and assess the feelings across the region, not to promote the project,” Courtney said. “We conducted polling to identify and address public concerns out of responsibility and respect to the region, so as to ensure informed decision-making guided the project forward.”

The Maine Turnpike Authority’s proposed route for the Gorham Connector linking the Gorham Bypass and Exit 45 in South Portland.

Courtney provided the poll results to the Portland Press Herald after the MTA board of directors discussed the expenditure at its Jan. 23 meeting.

If the MTA did commission the poll to bolster its effort to promote the highway project, “better late than never,” said Gary Dube, a connector supporter who lives on South Street in Gorham.

Dube, who wasn’t surveyed, said the poll results show that the authority and news media have done “a terrible job providing information about the potential benefits of the connector.”

Dube said he believes the connector would relieve commuter congestion throughout the region, including backups on routes 114, 22 and 25 that have increased in recent years as more housing has been built in towns west of Portland.

“People are taking side roads and back roads to avoid congestion,” he said. “They say people aren’t going to pay to avoid getting stuck in traffic and save time on the road. Of course, they’re going to pay for that.”

TOLL-FUNDED PROJECT

The authority is considering tolls of $1.50 to $2 to use the connector, according to a 2023 revenue study released last September.

Tolls would generate $65 million to $172 million in revenue over 30 years, and they would increase every 10 years. The authority would spend $125 million in cash reserves and finance the rest of the project at 5% for 30 years, the revenue study shows.

The poll was conducted Aug. 12-14 by phone among representative samples of towns in Cumberland and York counties. Respondents were divided into three subgroups: Tier 1 included Gorham, Scarborough, South Portland and Westbrook (36%); Tier 2 included Buxton, Dayton, Hollis, Limington, Standish and Windham (20%); and Tier 3 included Limerick, Lyman, Portland, Saco, Sebago and Waterboro (44%).

Most residents in Tiers 1 and 2 said they oppose the connector (48% and 54%, respectively), while most Tier 3 residents said they support the project (44%). More than 10% of people in all three tiers said they were unsure.

Smith noted that Mainers for Smarter Transportation is supporting two legislative efforts that aim to dissolve the MTA as an independent state agency, both sponsored by Sen. Stacy Brenner, a Democrat who represents Gorham and most of Scarborough.

LR 1890 would establish a working group to fold the authority into the Maine Department of Transportation. LR 1915 would clarify the authority’s obligations under Maine’s Sensible Transportation Policy Act, which requires transportation projects to consider social, economic and environmental impacts, including transportation system efficiency, unnecessary energy use and waste reduction. Details of each bill have yet to be submitted.

Smith said the MTA has become obsolete, similar to agencies that have been eliminated in other states. At the same time, attitudes toward highway expansion have evolved.

“Maine’s population is getting older, telework is rising, younger folks are less likely to drive,” Smith said. “There has been a change in attitude recognizing that highways promote sprawl and increase congestion, they don’t solve it.”