The Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) is currently fast-tracking two multi-million construction projects in Downtown Portland that would intensify traffic congestion, incur millions of dollars, and increase commuting and parking costs to the residents and workers of the City of Portland.

These projects have the potential to completely destroy and uproot mobility for thousands of Portland residents, students, and workers by creating a physically intimidating and unhealthy environment for pedestrians in the Bayside Neighborhoods and the University of Southern Maine campus.

MDOT’s own traffic data demonstrates that there exists no quantitative rationale for the plan to widen the freeway ramps at Exits 6 and 7. The historical counts for volumes on Franklin and Marginal Way have been consistent for two decades! There have been no incidents of traffic stacking up into the southbound travel lanes of I-295. Expansion of this exit will actually aid in increasing the traffic flow that MDOT is claiming as the current condition that designates their proposed expansion!