Transportation & Land Use

Portland North Small Starts

Portland North Small Starts Alternative Analysis -The MaineDOT Office of Passenger Transportation is beginning the FTA "Small Starts" planning process to include the cities and towns between Portland and Brunswick and Portland and Lewiston/Auburn in July of 2007. MaineDOT has conducted an Environmental Assessment (EA) and other planning studies in the corridors.  GPCOG and AVCOG have been invited to assist MaineDOT with the public outreach process and other planning tasks; GPCOG will work through their Coastal Corridor Coalition on this effort. 

In order to qualify as a "Small Start" the total project cost must be less than $250 millio, with no greater than $75 million in requested FTA Section 5309 Capital Investment Grant funding.  In addition, a project must meet one of the following guideway critera:

• Be a fixed guideway for at least 50% of the project length in the peak period and/or
• Be a corridor-based bus project with the following minimum elements:
  • Substantial Transit Stations
  • Signal Priority/Pre-emption (for Bus/LRT)
  • Low Floor / Level Boarding Vehicles
  • Special Branding of Service
  • Frequent Service - 10 min peak/15 min off peak
  • Service offered at least 14 hours per day

To learn more about the process please visit the MaineDOT website http://www.maine.gov/mdot-stage/portlandnorth/index.htm

For the Portland North Small Starts Public Participation Plan  Click here

Upcoming Stakeholder Meeting

May 27th  10:00-12:00 Town of Falmouth Library’s meeting room 5 Lunt Rd – (off of Route 1)
May 28th   10:00-12:00 the AVCOG Conference room 125 Manley Road Auburn.

At these meetings, we will discuss the following:

1. Project Purpose and Need
2. Preliminary Evaluation Criteria
3. Development of the Baseline TSM Alternative (This is the Alternative against which all other Alternatives will be compared)
   

Spring Newsletter

Minutes - March 20th 2008