Interstate 295's days are numbered

[Christian MilNeil]

Wanted to flag this for a wider audience – at the last PACTS regional transportation advisory committee meeting on October 7, MaineDOT's COO, Andy Bickmore, admitted that there are 25 bridges along Interstate 295 that are nearing the end of their life, and it would cost "over $250 million" to repair them all. 

The agency does not have anywhere near enough funding to pay for those projects, because a city of 70,000 does not need and can not afford to maintain two parallel interstate highways. 

But Bickmore didn't really want to admit this. What's interesting is that MaineDOT (i.e., Governor Janet Mills's administration) is going ahead and paying for expensive engineering studies to do these projects with an assumption that they're eventually going to raise our taxes by a quarter-billion dollars to pay for them.

Is I-295, a functionally obsolete highway and one of our biggest sources of regional traffic congestion, worth a quarter-billion dollar tax increase? I think this would be an interesting conversation to have! 

The conversation starts around 46:00 in this video: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/v9EEXm65uo8YLi2_TR8_Ta99KvAsoqzqu6BE-P6ZaoQxQV5SbCe2ThgFmsb1RDj4fbvyGVDXCkI0lnqs.eHVDHx8RXD5dRq1D?eagerLoadZvaPages=sidemenu.billing.plan_management&isReferralProgramEnabled=false&isReferralProgramAvailable=false&accessLevel=meeting&canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&startTime=1759842237000&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fus02web.zoom.us%2Frec%2Fshare%2Fyd-DJTj2jz_JlGGjnVYjmpjNJVLrcXCycevBxO-8LLwdSfEa1C2CsB_0qXxQA3pb.kE1YlMs1RGRrV6qA%3FstartTime%3D1759842237000

Christian MilNeil
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[Maya Lena]

Thanks for sharing, Christian.

I remember the former grad-student who did the study of removing I-295 said that in his design, all of the bridges would remain. I'm not sure about turning i-295 into a local road, as he described, without removing them. Zack, do you recall? Could you add his designs study to this thread?

Maya

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[Gordon Platt]

Maya (and everyone! this is a great little read/look) 

Here it is: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24455194-portlandparkway_final_v1-1/?responsive=1&title=1

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Thanks, 

Gordon Platt

[Zack Barowitz]

Very interesting!!

I’m in Canada without my computer but I’ll post share when I get back. 

In the meantime the presentations should be on the UCP website. 

I’ll watch the video and follow up. 

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On Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 2:14 PM Maya Lena <maya....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Christian MilNeil]

The problem with any theoretical plan that keeps the bridges – besides the fact that they're a massive drain on public finances – is that having any kind of toll-free, grade-separated highway through the middle of the Portland peninsula is like a giant magnet for more and more traffic. 

There are thousands of trips every day between Falmouth and Scarborough that take 295 because it's free, even though 95 is available and faster, because 95 has tolls. Having a free expressway through the peninsula is literally a subsidy for out-of-town drivers to bring more cars and trucks into the most congested part of the state. And for local traffic, it's no coincidence that the interchanges leading to and from 295 (Forest Avenue, outer Congress, Franklin Street, outer Washington) are also the most congested, dangerous streets in our city. 

There are a growing number of cities that are tearing down obsolete downtown highways like 295 and seeing huge benefits from reduced congestion, CNU keeps a running list: 
https://www.cnu.org/our-projects/highways-boulevards/completed-h2b-projects

(this list includes Boston, but it probably shouldn't; instead of eliminating their downtown highway, they widened it and put it underground, so all the same traffic congestion problems are still there and getting worse). 

Christian MilNeil
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On Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 2:14 PM Maya Lena <maya....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Luke Bartol]

Interested that the deck didn't include anything north of Veranda St, as it seems like there's some great opportunity for reconnecting the parcels on the ocean-side of 295 near the mouth of the Presumpscot including the Berle Mile Pond trail which is currently only accessible by water at high tide. Also some real estate from the Bucknam road exits if it's cutting off to the Falmouth Spur (or 495 as no one ever calls it).

-Luke

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[Eric Anderson]

Grounding 295 and turning it into a livable street would be an amazing, transformative project for Portland. I'm interested in being part of a group that would think about how to move this forward over the coming years.

Eric~

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[Jaime Parker]

Hell yeah, me too.

Jaime Parker

(he/his)
Special Projects Director
Portland Trails
ja...@trails.org
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[Zack Barowitz]

Well said! And just not to put too fine a point on it, the most problematic in town streets correspond to the highway interchanges and underpasses. In other words, the highway is the problem. 

Zack 

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[Maya Lena]

Thank you for sharing the document, Gordon.

Pages 28 and 29 show the proposed concept for the "Portland Parkway" with "existing bridge retained" in multiple locations, as indicated by the icon number 4.

I'm not saying that this design is the only option for the removal of I-295, but it is one that has been studied and the bridges were recommended to stay.

Maya

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[Aaron L. Rosenblum]

I'm no fan of 295, and I support its removal...on one very important condition. Every time this conversation comes up I'm going to be here to say that any plans "for 295" absolutely must include consideration for several (relatively) dense communities along 95 from the split in South Portland to the Falmouth Spur that will bear the brunt of the diverted traffic impacts, especially the marginalized communities in Riverton Park, the immigrant family (and now winter emergency) shelter, etc. Increased air and noise pollution will have a negative impact on quality of life in Riverton, Sagamore Village, etc., unless due consideration is given and sufficient plans made to address these impacts in advance. 

Focusing solely on the (many!) positive impacts of removing 295 and ignoring the negative impacts outside of the 295 corridor will result in the repetition of some of the ills and inequities caused by the construction of the highway in the first place. The Portland Parkway proposal, as interesting and constructive as it is, barely mentions I-95 and makes no attempt whatsoever at solving for impacts to the I-95 corridor, basically externalizing those ills of 295 not solved by the parkway itself in the immediate peninsula corridor. 

As a Riverton resident, I'm glad to see MDOT finally taking long-delayed noise abatement action along this corridor (not that the proposed solutions, like sound walls, are perfect or effective over long distances), but if that's the pace of change (construction in 2027...maybe) I do not expect them to respond to increased traffic from a closure of 295 on a meaningful timeline unless the funding and pressure are part of the 295 discussions from the start. 

Aaron

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[Scsmedia]

I presume the reference to bridges needing retrofit/replacement is along the entire length of I-295.  The Brunswick to Augusta part was finished in 1975/76.  They have done at least six bridges from Falmouth to Freeport and Veranda Street in Portland.

The Feds may care about how small Portland is, but it is the largest city in Maine and thus all roads lead to Portland.

There are thousands of trips every day between Falmouth and Scarborough that take 295 because it's free, even though 95 is available and faster, because 95 has tolls. 

The state attempts to direct thru traffic to the Turnpike. (Google maps and others defeat that).  But there is a toll at Scarborough, unless you take exit 45 to avoid it.  I think most corporate users don't bother with the detour since they don't pay the tab (I never did in my company car).

If you want to blame anybody, blame Google.

Steven Scharf

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[Liz Trice]

I would love to be part of that group, too!

I imagine a plan might keep some (not all) of the ramps at Congress and Franklin, and start by removing Franklin to Congress, which would allow removing the bridges at Congress and Forest (for starters), and connecting the USM campus and Deering oaks without a road inbetween. 

Marginal way can pick up the traffic between Franklin and Forest. 

I'm not sure what would have to happen to allow traffic to enter the peninsula from the north without using the Franklin exit, or traffic from the south without using some of the Congress exits.