MaineDOT January 25, 2021 Dear MaineDOT Customers and Partners, On behalf of the nearly 1,800 dedicated employees at the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT), I am privileged to present this 2021 Edition of our Work Plan for the three calendar years 2021, 2022, and 2023. This Work Plan includes all capital projects and programs, maintenance and operations activities, planning initiatives, and administrative functions. This plan contains 2,180 individual work items with a total value of $2.71 billion. It consists principally of work to be delivered or coordinated through MaineDOT, but it also includes funding and work by other transportation partners, including airports and transit agencies. This is the first – and hopefully last – Work Plan we will release during a global pandemic. Obviously, COVID-19 has impacted everything, including transportation in Maine. Despite a year like no other, MaineDOT’s essential mission remains unchanged: to support economic opportunity and quality of life by responsibly providing our customers with the safest and most reliable transportation system possible, given available resources. Those last three words – given available resources – are critical. Transportation needs in Maine continue to far outpace available resources for several reasons including Maine’s large land area, expansive transportation system, relatively low and widely dispersed population, and geology and weather that – while beautiful – are challenging when it comes to transportation infrastructure. The scope of the chronic shortfall is daunting. In 2019, a nonpartisan Blue Ribbon Commission – made up of legislators, transportation professionals, and other stakeholders – was specifically formed to recommend transportation funding solutions. This Commission found that Maine’s unmet transportation need is more $230 million per year. That shortfall figure was calculated after assuming that state bonding of $100 million or more will continue every year. The Commission called for redirecting and raising additional revenue and more federal funding for transportation. The Commission’s final report was released on March 9, 2020. Less than a week later, COVID-19 hit Maine. The economy shook. Unemployment spiked. Many businesses – especially those in hospitality – are fighting to hang on. Many Maine people are struggling with basic needs like maintaining their jobs, paying their rent or mortgage, and providing food for their families. The pandemic also caused traffic volumes to plummet, and they remain down, making an already tough state transportation revenue situation worse. Despite these challenges, MaineDOT immediately pivoted to what became known as business unusual, a term indicating that we need to keep delivering for Maine while acknowledging that everything is different. We shifted to remote work, prudently reduced hiring and other spending, and accelerated the use of bond funds made available from the earlier-than-usual July 2020 referendum vote. To take advantage of increased safety from lower traffic volumes and better bid prices, we used bond funds to add ten capital projects valued at $33 million to MaineDOT’s 2020 capital program. We delivered this augmented capital program at a record-breaking 94% on-time delivery rate, providing a silver lining in the economic dark cloud caused by the pandemic. We all can be proud of the many ways MaineDOT continues to deliver during this time of business unusual. Although we will need to continue the quest started by the Blue Ribbon Commission and find transformational state revenue solutions for transportation, the pandemic requires different priorities for the next year or two. We now focus on defeating the virus, restoring our economy, helping Maine people and businesses in need, and addressing budget shortfalls. Reflecting the reality of COVID-19, this Work Plan: • Keeps Maine working now and builds on our long-term economic foundation by maintaining solid capital transportation programs. It does so with robust and prudent state bonding made possible by historically low interest rates and by fully utilizing discretionary and extraordinary federal funding. • Requires MaineDOT to squeeze the most value from every existing reliable dollar. To do so, we must continue to “MacGyver,” which means “to make or repair (an object) in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are at hand.” • Requires MaineDOT to be agile enough to respond to possible different federal funding futures, including more economic stimulus or a large national infrastructure package. • Expands partnership programs, supports existing and emerging businesses, refocuses investment in our villages, enhances planning and communication, and confronts climate change. Transportation is fundamental to our safety, economic prosperity, and quality of life. It is fundamental to everything we do and who we are. Admittedly, we have big challenges in the near-term as we defeat the virus. In the long-term, we have great opportunities to make a real difference for the people of Maine after we resolve the chronic funding challenge. We look forward to working with you to maximize these opportunities as we move forward together. Respectfully, Bruce A. Van Note Contents Introduction MaineDOT’s Three-Year Work Plan – 2021 Edition .................................................................................... i A. Sources of Funds ....................................................................................................................................... iii 1. State Highway Fund Revenues ......................................................................................................... iv 2. Federal Funds ..................................................................................................................................... iv 3. Bonding ............................................................................................................................................. vii 4. State Multimodal Funding................................................................................................................. viii 5. Municipal Matching Funds ............................................................................................................... ix 6. Other Funding Sources ..................................................................................................................... ix 7. Previously Programmed Funds ........................................................................................................ ix 8. Adapting to Funding Uncertainty .................................................................................................... x B. Uses of Funds ............................................................................................................................................. xi 1. Principles and Processes .................................................................................................................... xi 2. Breakdown of Uses of Funds ............................................................................................................. xii C. Unmet Need ............................................................................................................................................. xx Reading the Work Plan ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Work Plan Tabs ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Tips on Using This Work Plan .......................................................................................................................... 2 Counties • Androscoggin ………………………………………………………………...……………………… 3 • Aroostook …………………………………………………………………......................................... 14 • Cumberland ………………………………………………………………......................................... 32 • Franklin …………………………………………………………………............................................ 55 • Hancock ……………………………………………………………………..……………………….. 62 • Kennebec …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 71 • Knox …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 82 • Lincoln ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 88 • Oxford ………………………………………………………………………………………............... 94 • Penobscot …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 103 • Piscataquis …………………………………………………………………........................................ 121 • Sagadahoc ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 125 • Somerset ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 129 • Waldo ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 136 • Washington …………………………………………………………………………………............... 140 • York …………………………………………………………………………………………………... 146 Statewide Capital Programs …………………………………………………………………………… 160 Statewide Operations …………………………………………………………………………………… 177 Municipal Index …………………………………………………………………………………………. 230 Work Plan Terms and Definitions ……………………………………………………………………… 238 MaineDOT’s Three-Year Work Plan 2021 Edition Introduction This Work Plan describes all work planned by the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) and its transportation partners for calendar years 2021, 2022, and 2023. Published early each calendar year, all MaineDOT work plans since 2013 have included all capital projects and programs, maintenance and operations activities, planning initiatives, and administrative functions for three calendar years.1 This Work Plan contains 2,180 work items with a total value of $2.71