By Dave Dyer

Staff Writer

A new traffic study committee has been approved to look for traffic relief on Payne Road.

The town council passed a resolution Feb. 18 for a committee, led Councilor Ronald Ahlquist, that will study Payne Road, between  Dunstan Corner on Route 1 and Haigis Parkway. The committee will explore ways to make necessary capacity and operational improvements to the entryways to the Dunstan Corner intersection, while at the same time not overburdening Payne Road west with regional through traffic. 

The study will be funded by the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System [PACTS], who are using state allocated money for studies for road improvement, Ahlquist said.

Ahlquist said when looking at a previous road capacity study, that section of Payne Road is over its limit. He said an up to date capacity study will also be done, however, he said he hopes it doesn’t slow the committee down in finding ways to make improvements to the road.

Ahlquist said the committee will also include a representative from PACTS, Town Planner Dan Bacon, Town Manager Thomas Hall and Payne Road residents Carl Leinonen, Carl Porter and Michael Kosack. 

Ahlquist said he first became aware of traffic issues on Payne Road after resident Carl Leinonen asked him to visit his home and watch the traffic driving through the rural section of the road.

“The Payne Road has become a highway, it was intended to be a neighborhood road,” Ahlquist said. 

Leinonen said since the opening of Cabela’s near the Haigis Parkway last spring, people drive on Payne Road at high rates of speed, making traveling in and out of driveways dangerous for Payne Road residents.

Ahlquist said one of the reasons for the Haigis Parkway was to alleviate traffic on Payne Road, but with more businesses opening near the parkway, it leads to more traffic on Payne Road.

Leinonen said he is also “sick” of picking up littered trash on the roadside, which he said include wrappers from fast food restaurants and cigarette butts.

Ahlquist said blame for the increased traffic goes beyond Cabela’s, as commercial vehicles and large trucks have used Payne Road as a short cut from Route 1 to the Maine Mall area without having to use the Haigis Parkway. He said previous attempts to reduce traffic flow have been made by putting signs by Haigis Parkway reading “preferred truck route,” as well as Scarborough police installing electronic “your speed is” signs on the side of the road. However, Ahlquist said the attempts have failed. 

He said his immediate ideas to improve traffic flow would be to possibly ban commercial traffic on Payne Road west of Haigis Parkway, widening the Haigis Parkway by adding more lanes, as well as adding sidewalks to Payne Road to give it a “calming affect.”

Leinonen said the best way to slow traffic flow would be to close off Payne Road west from direct access with Route 1 by the Dunstan intersection.

“There’s other ways for people to head north/south,” Leinonen said. “Haigis Parkway, Route 1, that’s what they’re designed for. I think it would discourage through traffic.”

Scarborough Public Works Director Mike Shaw said the amount of traffic on Payne Road takes a physical toll on the road itself and improving the road would not be cheap.

“That’s a substantial stretch of road,” Shaw said. “Anything that’s going to improve it will be an expenditure.” 

According to the resolution, the study group will review the implications alternative routes would have for property owners on Payne Road west, Route 1, Haigis Parkway and Dunstan corner, examine cost estimates and cost differences in improvement alternatives and determine a course of action for the area to begin advanced design and engineering.

Ahlquist said the traffic study would need to be done quickly, as the group has a deadline for the Aug. 19 town council meeting, because it would be the date the PACTS representative is required to give a presentation on the information gathered.