Libbytown project wins $22.4 million federal grant

[Christian MilNeil]

Big news for the "connecting Libbytown" project:

https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5174

Christian MilNeil
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[Zack Barowitz]

Sigh. That’s awesome.

207-838-6120

917-696-5649
ZacharyBarowitz.com

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[Tony Donovan]

Using the Biden Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to fix MeDOT mistakes.  This is not what the Reconnecting Communities program is intended for.  But MeDOT knows a free source of money for their pavement buddies.  This is the same program they are going to use on the $55 million absolutely unnecessary reconstruction of Franklin Arterial.

MeDOT does not know the meaning of sustainability and is ignoring at all of our peril their spending decisions on the Climate.  

So whoopie, one more roundabout.  $22 million from Pingree for her re-election and the actual costs will certainly be much high.  But now that MeDOT has a new source of money - $100,000,000 million from the State General fund every year, to match the $4.5 billion they have for their new 3 year budget, money , tax dollars for pavement, is no problem.  Next thing you know they will be tearing up a farm to pave a new road

MeDOT needs to be reigned in.  This project is bullshot

Train Time

Tony Donovan

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Anthony J. Donovan, Director

 Maine Rail Transit Coalition

84 Middle St.  Portland, Me. 04101

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Train Time

[Winston Lumpkins]

My understanding, which led me to advocate that they be used for these projects, was that the connecting communities grants are intended to reconnect communities disconnected and made dangerous by the mistakes of traffic engineers of the 60s, 70s & 80s...  Some of those mistakes are pretty hard to fix using solely local funds, and I am not alone in thinking some of them where made in Portland.

PBPAC supported the redesign of Franklin Street published in 2015, and in our policy priorities for both 2023 & 2024 we supported not only implementing (and in 2024 also updating) the Franklin Street redesign (as the council recently voted to do) but also returning Park & Congress Street to 2 way streets.  This grant should be celebrated, as it will do just that- the pressure we put on the council and City staff over the last few years very likely contributed to the rare step of applying for such a large grant- we should feel proud of this.  This project (if executed well) could be an example of good separated bicycle infrastructure which we can use to leverage that type of infrastructure throughout the rest of the city.  We do need to remain on top of our game as this project moves forward to ensure that the separated bike-ways included in the initial design are implemented successfully and can serve as an example for the rest of the city... and perhaps outer congress street... :).

Additionally, we sent a letter in support of this grant application: in short, we have supported this project from day one, and I plan to continue to do so as we aid our collective lived experience to ensuring it's done right.

~Winston

Winston Lumpkins IV (he/him/his)

Chair, Portland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee
https://www.portlandbikeped.org/

winston....@gmail.com
207-408-1508

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[George Rheault]

FYI - The traffic engineers (civil engineers) behind 295 were merely following the dictates of Portland and Maine political and economic elites.  Those elites were the ones telling the bulldozers where to go.

The engineers actually proposed 295 to be much closer to the Western Prom as that route would have been much less disruptive, especially to Libbytown.  I think we all know how that turned out.

Portland would not be Portland without 295.  There were winners and losers to the path debated in the 1940s/50s/60s and finally completed circa late 1974.  

Just like there will be winners and losers for the new paths chosen in the years ahead that we are debating today.  

 

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[Myles G. Smith]

Supporting the Franklin and Congress redesigns makes sense. We're not in the position to weigh the value of different funding sources, we're in the position to ask for concrete improvements for pedestrians, cyclists, those with mobility challenges, etc. 

To those who have been watching Libbytown more closely - do you have concerns about the prioritization of cars coming off I-295? When I heard Denny's was going to be updated to a traffic circle, I raised an eyebrow. Certainly it could be better than a signalled intersection, but there's so much going wrong around exit 5 I can't help but being skeptical.

On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 8:07 PM Winston Lumpkins <winston....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Zack Barowitz]

Myles,

I've been watching the Libbytown thing for a while so I'll weigh in. Yes, the traffic circle will be a lot of pavement, and yes, the project would be a whole lot better if DoT consented to close 3-4 the redundant interchanges on Congress Street as was first proposed. Nevertheless,  I think this is still a huge win. The restoration of two-way traffic on Congress and Park will make a tremendous difference from everything from cross town traffic routes to not getting stuck behind trains (or stuck in 5' storm puddles). The associated complete street improvements will update the streetscape to at least an early '00s standard, and we should (eventually) get a big housing development out of the Denny's site. As for the traffic circle, it's all about size. A nice little roundabout like the one at USM would be fine; a huge rotary (like off the highway in Portsmouth) would suck.

There will be headaches to come with this I'm sure. I'd like to change the direction of Lowell Street, for example, and the number/location of crosswalks might be a battle; but for now it's all good. Maybe money will come for the ramp closures in the Harris administration. And now that PBPAC has signed on as a co-host to the I-295 event ("Portland Leviathan"), I can't help but think the expressway's days are numbered as well.

Zack

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[Myles G. Smith]

Really helpful, thank you. Sounds like again, watching the implementation is critical. I live near the USM circle and bike through it almost daily - that scale is great. I wish we had them throughout the neighborhood instead of the stop signs (and speed limit signs) everyone ignores. 

What is this Portland’s Leviathan event?

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