Saturday, July 17, 2010 — We just received this account of yesterday’s Stakeholder Teleconference Call (held in lieu of what had been a scheduled Stakeholders Meeting) from Stephen Kosacz, by way of Ben Porter. — The Ed]
Despite last minute meeting cancellation, there were a significant number of people who logged into the conference call indicating (to me) that the Stake Holders are still committed to their part in the process. Jon Carter (Kittery Town Manager), Ben Porter (SeacoastBridges.com, Stephen Kosacz (Autoworks, Inc.) and Gary Beers (Kittery Town Councilman) met at the Kittery Town Offices
NH DOT rep Bob Landry took a day off from his annual summer vacation to attend — an indication to NH’s commitment to this project
NH and Maine DOTs are not in agreement on what are the best of the remaining alternatives. To determine who was in favor of what, Ben Porter asked both DOT reps what their respective positions on the alternatives, Landry said NH felt all 3 bridges were necessary, Maine DOT rep simply said they were waiting for the conclusion of the study. Carol Morris reiterated that the two states do not agree, and indicated that Maine favored the Sarah Mildred Long bridge.
Ben Porter pointed out that the SML bridge has 5-7 years so that the repair/replacement decisions could be delayed so that the costs could be spread out over a longer period therefore providing a relief valve from the current heated crisis.
Kosacz suggested NHDOT replace the Memorial Bridge now and if the SML was more important to Maine than the MB, then Maine could deal with it when and how they saw fit. Gerry (Maine DOT) pointed out that the ownership of the MB and SML are jointly owned by ME and NH thus consensus is required.
The only alternative that has yet to pass Fatal Flaw Analysis is option 11 (No Memorial with a Transit system substitute) and a Hybrid mid level SML. Kosacz pointed out that the life cycle costs are a required element in the decision making process and with a projected $1.7 million annual operating costs for the Transit system and no allowance for costs increases over the next 100 years, the operating costs of the Transit alternative are $170 million. Kosacz also pointed out that Connections study traffic interviews conducted in the spring proved the driving patterns of NH residents using the Memorial Bridge would not be achieved by the Transit system alternative, i.e. people don’t drive from downtown Portsmouth or New Castle, go to a single destination in Kittery, and return home. For them shopping in southern Maine is a multi-destination event
The study/decision on the remaining alternatives will require another 3 weeks and will be in the hands of the NH and Maine DOT with possible input from the Governors’ offices. It did not seem that the Steering Committee or Stake Holders would have be able to review or comment on the report prior to its publication although HNTB and Carol Morris continued to state that our (public) input was valued.
Maine DOT rep would not confirm Maine would join NH in submitting a Notice of Intent on the Tiger II grant application whose deadline has been extended to the end of July. Audibert noted that this was a decision that would be made at the Commissioner and Governor level. Jon Carter pointed out that U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said at last Friday’s meeting, the NOI was the only US Government document she had seen that a grade school student could complete.
A representative from the historical interests pointed out that rehabilitation of the Memorial Bridge was no longer on the list of alternatives even though there was no official removal of it. Paul of HNTB indicated that recent studies of the MB revealed that the MB is so badly deteriorated that it is impossible to repair the MB and replacement is the only option. The Connections Study has not delivered the condition data to the historical interests for their review.
Questions continue to be raised about the viability of funding coming from either Department of Defense or Homeland Security. This is complicated by the fact that the rail portion of the SML bridge is owned by PanAm Railways. It is not clear exactly what part of the bridge is owned by the rail company, nor is it clear what payments are made for the use of the rail line.