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Grassroots Group Fights State on Proposed Fixed Span for Naples Causeway

March 27, 2008 - NAPLES -- The state's Department of Transportation wants a fixed bridge spanning the Chute River at Naples Causeway.

Most Naples officials and businessmen have spoken up for a new swinging bridge.

Can Naples and MDOT officials bridge the gap, on the last day of March?

Naples town officials and a local grassroot roots group have been meeting with Maine Department of Transportation officials, advancing the argument that Naples needs a moving bridge, not a fixed structure, to replace the antiquated Bay of Naples swinging bridge.

Town manager Derik Goodine confirmed last week that a local public meeting with Maine Department of Transportation officials on options for Causeway bridge construction will occur on March 31. He said the meeting has been set up to begin at 6 p.m. in the town office.

Citizens will be welcome to attend to listen, but the meeting has not been set up as a public hearing. Naples and state transportation officials will discuss options for formats and possible "add-ons" for a proposed fixed bridge project. Goodine called them possible "pot sweeteners." He indicated they would have to be awfully sweet to counteract the bitter taste a fixed bridge project would bring.

Concerns over the bridge's future -- there are no detailed plans as yet, just a concept favoring a fixed span -- gave rise to high-level meetings in Augusta, last Friday and this past Monday.

A group of residents and business people formed a committee to ensure that Naples and surrounding towns will "not have the regions thriving commerce adversely affected by an MDOT decision to build a fixed bridge."

However, Goodine said two meetings held within the last week with MDOT officials yielded only minimal impetus for the opening bridge option in Augusta. The MDOT told petitioners that "money is tight" and a fixed bridge still looked like "the best option" to the state, at this point. By the end of the Monday's meeting, however, Goodine added, it looked as if the MDOT had registered the fervor and genuine depth of local concerns about the fixed span.

Selectman Rick Paraschak said Monday that, even if everyone in Naples is rabidly in favor of an opening bridge, "we'll have to contribute." He mentioned the sums of one or two or three million dollars. "I don't know where we come up with $3 million, if that is the case," he said.

The grassroots group has been arguing hard for the economic, historic and cultural advantages of a swing bridge. Peter Marucci and Nancy Hanson presented these arguments most powerfully, Goodine said. But the tightness of money at the state level has been an overriding concern. The first lift bridge proposal came in $7 million over budget. Refurbishing the current bridge, at about $8.5 million, yields a low cost-benefit ratio, because build-new options are good for 80 years, while a refurbished bridge would offer only a 20 year life span.

Business interests in particular, however, reject the prospect of a fixed bridge for the next 80 years, based on economic concerns.

"The people of Naples and neighboring communities have deep concerns about a proposal given at a recent meeting with the Maine Department Transportation to build a fixed bridge in Naples," said Raymond Wallace, a consultant on the project. He added that the biggest concern is that a fixed bridge allows only a 12 foot clearance, "which dramatically reduces the number of commercial vessels allowed to pass under."

"Although the MDOT estimates that 85% of all traffic can pass beneath the 12 foot clearance," Wallace said, "those vessels represent the merest fraction of commercial traffic."

Docked on Long Lake at the Causeway, the Songo River Queen II, the icon of Naples and the Lake Region, transports thousands of tourists each year through the manually operated swing bridge farther south at Songo Locks. Owner Frank Gerrish estimates that losing the ability to pass through the bridge at the Causeway would cost his business 65% of its trips and perhaps even greater hit to revenues.

"This is not about the bridge," said Peter Marucci, president of Colonial Mast campground. "This is about the regional economy -- the effect of building a fixed bridge spreads far beyond Naples."

Construction of a new lift bridge was included at $11 million for this biennium. When the project estimates rose to 18 million, however, the MDOT had to come back with other options, including a $14.5 million new swing structure, a rehab project, and a fixed bridge proposal.

A moving bridge requires large operational costs. He MDOT estimates the cost of $2,000 per opening, over 80 years, largely because of the higher than expected initial cost and continuing maintenance and operational costs. With more than 1500 openings in a typical season, however, Selectman found it hard to believe that the annual costs would exceed $3 million a year.

Goodine said that the fixed span package would likely have to be very sweet to get much public support; he mentioned at Monday night's selectmen's meeting that there might be accompanying offers of related-funding projects dealing with parks and adjacent lands, and with parking, sidewalk, Causeway and seawall improvements.

This article originally appeared in the Bridgton news, March 27, 2008.

Lakes: Long Lake
Regions: Sebago


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