The Maine Turnpike Authority is dropping its controversial Gorham Connector project, a proposed four-lane highway that would run from South Portland through Westbrook and Scarborough to Gorham.
Instead, state transportation authorities say they will undertake a comprehensive effort to find ways of easing persistent rush hour traffic in the region.
Turnpike officials spent more than a dozen years and millions of dollars pursuing a five-mile toll road that would connect Portland’s western suburbs to the interstate. Traffic congestion in the area routinely causes backups and spills into residential neighborhoods, creating safety problems.
But growing public opposition to the $330 million project led the Turnpike to pause it last year.
Now all work has stopped while the state conducts fresh research on the issue, said agency spokesperson Erin Courtney. The Turnpike Authority has spent more than $18 million on the project since 2001, including $6.5 million on land purchases.
“We’re not doing anything right now to be looking at what those alignments could be,” Courtney said. “It is going to rely on whatever comes organically through this process. In a sense, we’ve abandoned what we were working on. But I don’t think it’s all for nothing.”