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Feds consider funds for I-95 exit at Alfond Center

By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

Federal dollars are in the pipeline in both houses of Congress for a new connection between Interstate 95 and the MaineGeneral Medical Center's campus in north Augusta.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, announced Thursday a House committee approved $1 million to help restructure Exit 113 of I-95 to provide a link to the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care and the proposed site of a new inpatient hospital.

"Restructuring the highway exit will open access to MaineGeneral's new hospital and make way for economic development that will benefit the entire region," Pingree said in a statement issued by her office.

Enhancing Exit 113 will also allow expansion in the area for employment, higher education, government services and retail facilities, she noted.

Pingree said the funding is included in a omnibus appropriations bill for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, which is scheduled for votes by the full House and Senate later this summer.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, requested $8 million for the exit, but the committee has yet to take a vote on that funding, according to a spokesman in her office.

Construction of a new exit for the hospital has been hailed as critical for the new $322 million hospital project, which is currently under review by the state.

The Harold A. Alfond Foundation has also pledged $35 million toward the new hospital construction, $25 million of which is contingent on state approval and construction of the new highway exit.

"Rep. Pingree has been working with us and the Augusta Board of Trade and the city to work on an Exit 113 connection to Old Belgrade Road," said Chuck Hays, chief executive officer of MaineGeneral Medical Center.

He said the hospital and the business community also are working on the connector project with officials of the Federal Highway Administration.

Hays noted that part of the impetus for the new connector is because Exit 112, which is one mile south of Exit 113, is nearing capacity.

"Rep. Pingree was kind enough to put an appropriation into the House transportation bill," Hays said. "We're very excited and thankful that it's in the draft and hoping to secure those funds and get access to the north side of Augusta."

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com