On the Move

2 | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | Bangor Daily News

Maine Trailer’s new location benefits business, customers

By Brian Swartz SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Maine Trailer relocates to 101 Coldbrook Road, Hampden effective Wednesday, June 1, and the move benefits customers and the company alike.

“We’re very happy with the move,” said Bill Peters, who purchased Maine Trailer from Irwin Singer in February 2001. “This works well for us.”

After starting Maine Trailer in the early 1980s, Singer constructed a large building at 1701 Hammond St. (Route 2) in Hermon in 1984. When that building burnt two years later, Singer promptly rebuilt it.

Maine Trailer kept growing, and today the company has a 1,200-trailer fleet, with many “on the road outside Maine,” said Vice President Rod Hathaway.

According to Peters, Maine Trailer: • Leases over-the-road dry vans and flatbed trailers to motor carriers; • Rents office trailers, storage trailers, and storage containers similar to those transported on container ships; • Sells utility trailers that range in size from “what a homeowner would use to a 25-ton trailer to carry a bulldozer,” Peters said; • Distributes trailer parts statewide; • Services trailers, not only Maine Trailer’s, but those belonging to customers throughout Maine.

“Service is a major part of our business,” Peters said. “The members of our service group are incredibly good artisans” who “can repair a trailer that has hit a bridge or tipped over. They can rebuild a trailer from the ground up; we had one customer who bought a long flatbed and brought it to us and asked us to make two trailers out of it. We did.”

Peters indicated that fleet owners often “send their trailers here for servicing,” with Maine Trailer technicians repairing electrical and hydraulic systems, anti-lock brakes, roll-up doors, and damaged trailer exteriors. “There’s a skill in doing it which these guys have,” he said.

“We do a lot of work on straight trucks … repairing body work on the

box of the truck,” Hathaway said.

The Maine Trailer name appears across Maine. “We have equipment in Madawaska, down in Kittery, over in Rumford, in Bethel,” Hathaway said. Contractors rent office trailers for use at construction sites; due to economics, other companies may rent office trailers for long-term use rather than construct new buildings.

By August 2010, Peters and Hathaway realized that “we needed to look at other locations” for the company, Peters said.

He explained that the existing building “is over 25-years-old and is getting a little weary.” The 5 to 6 acres surrounding the building limited available on-site parking for trailers.

Peters asked Maine Commercial Realty “to find a site.” He and Hathaway examined “25 or 30 properties” in the BangorBrewer area before the realtors “brought us to 101 Coldbrook Road,” a vacant commercial building located next to Angler’s Restaurant and bordered by Route 202.

“We realized it could work for us,” Peters said. “The building’s smaller on a square-footage basis, but we were using only 60 percent of the space here [in Hermon]. The site gives us access to 18 acres, so we can park all our equipment here rather than lease land like we do now for the overflow from Hermon.”

The building’s owner has extensively renovated the approximately 11,500square-foot facility since Peters agreed to lease it. “They completely built a new wall facing Coldbrook Road,” Peters said. The offices, which “are totally brand new,” will consolidate various Maine Trailer employees into closer proximity than they have at Hermon, a step that “improves operational efficiencies,” he said.

“Our sales people will be in one room,” Hathaway said. “They will be cross-trained to sell parts, so when our customers contact us, we can respond immediately to their parts needs. It’s going to make everything more efficient.”

The Hampden building has four service bays, the same number as at Maine Trailer’s Hermon location, and “some doors were raised to accommodate the height of newer trailers,” Peters said.

BDN PHOTOS BY BRIAN SWARTZ

(Top left) Overseeing the relocation of Maine Trailer from Route 2 in Hermon to 101 Coldbrook, Hampden are Vice President Rod Hathaway (left) and Owner Bill Peters. (Top right) Maine Trailer technician Chris Jellison, who lives in Newburgh, installs a bolt on an 8-by-4-foot aluminum headboard he has placed on a flatbed trailer.

(Below) At the Maine Trailer service shop, technician Bruce Smith of Kenduskeag dusts a top nose rail before installing it on a 53-foot dry van.

The new facility will have “an Internet-based, hosted phone system and hosted computer system,” he indicated.

“Our phone system is 6-years-old, and it’s already in need of upgrades,” Hathaway said. “We’re trying to increase our efficiencies.”

“If we had stayed in Hermon, we would’ve needed to replace all our hardware for our computer system,” Peters said. “By going to a hosted system, all the upgrades are free. It will be so much more efficient and cost-effective for us.”

In conjunction with Efficiency Maine, new lighting has been installed throughout the Hampden building, and the heating system has been upgraded, Hathaway noted. “We will see lower energy costs,” he said.

Peters and Hathaway met with Hampden officials, including the Planning Board, after deciding to move Maine Trailer to 101 Coldbrook Road. “They seem very excited to have us,” Hathaway said.

The move will relocate 21 employees to Hampden; three people also work at Maine Trailer at 840 Washington St., Auburn. “We have a terrific group of employees who are dedicated to our customers,” Peters said. “We’re handling all the move ourselves. Normally in a move like this, you would bring in an outside company; we’re all loaded up, and we will actually be all moved in by Memorial Day weekend.”

According to Peters, the Coldbrook Road location provides “excellent access” to Interstate 95, Interstate 395, and Route 1; Hathaway noted that the building has good visibility from Coldbrook Road and Route 202.

“We can easily direct our customers here from Dysart’s,” he said. “We can tell them, ‘Turn right out of Dysart’s, go through the first light, and turn right immediately.’ They won’t have a problem finding us.”

Starting June 1, Maine Trailer will maintain the same hours at Hampden as it did at Hermon: 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m.,

Monday-Friday for sales, service, and parts and 7:30 a.m.-12 noon, Saturday, for sales and parts. Business has been improving since last year, Peters said, adding that Maine Trailer has hired four people “in the last few months.

“The transportation industry is coming back,” he said.“Trucking lost so much capacity” during the recession that motor carriers “are able to charge the rates they need to stay in business” rather than lower rates “just to obtain loads.

“As the economy picks up, there is more freight to haul,” he said.

Bangor Daily News | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | 3

Proposed rules changes raises ire of carriers and truckers

By Brian Swartz SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Proposed rules changes published in the Federal Register by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have ignited a firestorm among motor carriers and professional truckers.

On Dec. 23, 2010, the FMCSA proposed major changes to existing hours of service regulations. The changes would “really impact our industry” and “reduce productivity,” said Brian Parke, Maine Motor Transport Association CEO. “Everybody loses if this passes,” said Tim Doyle, MMTA vice president.“The FMCSA is considering real serious changes that will be felt across the economy.”

The proposed rules would apply to “all propertycarrying drivers and motor carriers,” according to an American Trucking Associations’ comparison chart published in the January/February 2011 “Maine News,” an MMTA magazine (see chart at right).

“If these rules pass, traffic patterns are going to change — and that’s just the start,” Parke said.

Referring to the mandatory 12 midnight-6 a.m. rest break, he explained that “this would force a lot of truck traffic out onto the road at 6 a.m., right at the beginning of the morning rush hour.

“Do we want all these additional trucks sharing the road with school buses and commuters? I don’t think so,” he said. “Truckers who could be driving

MMTA PHOTO

Brian Parke is the Maine Motor Transport Association CEO. through the night would have to pull off the road and rest two nights a week, regardless of the hours they’ve actually driven to that point. It’s crazy.”

Backing the FMCSA proposal are several national organizations “advocating that truckers are driving too many hours,” Doyle said. “Nobody’s advocating putting tired truckers on the road.

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“Commercial drivers already work under stringent hours of operation. These proposed rules would force drivers and motor carriers to rearrange their schedules to comply with hours of operation that really make no sense,” he commented.

The FMCSA cites improved safety as one reason to impose new hours of operation; statistics say otherwise, according to Doyle. Fatalities involving truck-related crashes have declined 33 percent since 2003; the ATA reports that “both fatality and injury crash rates are at their lowest level since the USDOT began keeping records.”

“Trucking has been safer than it ever has been,” Doyle said. “Why fix something that isn’t broken?”

Conforming to the FMCSA proposal would require “major logistical changes,” he said. “Companies that have ‘just-in-time delivery’ would have to alter their delivery schedules.”

Because the rules would reduce the weekly hours when a driver could work, more truck drivers must be hired to meet delivery schedules, Doyle indicated. “We’re moving the same amount of freight, but the available experienced drivers will have less time to move it because of the proposed rules.

“So more drivers must be hired to keep the trucks moving,” he said. “Many of those drivers will be inexperienced. This raises the potential for accidents. Why, if the current hours of operation are working and truck safety is the best it’s ever been, are we changing the rules?”

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4 | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | Bangor Daily News

Bridge construction will ease traffic on Route 2

By Brian Swartz SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Truckers (and everybody else) traveling on Route 2 between Canaan and Newport this summer will cross 380-acre Sibley Pond on a causeway, not on the 790-foot bridge that has spanned the pond since 1938.

Draining the Canaan Bog and a few streams in Hartland and Pittsfield, Sibley Pond straddles the Canaan-Pittsfield boundary in southeastern Somerset County. Spilling across a small dam near the Canaan Post Office, Carrabassett Stream drains Sibley Pond into the Kennebec River at Clinton.

Until 1938, Route 2 crossed the pond on a bridgeconnected causeway. That year the Maine State Highway Commission bypassed the causeway by constructing a bridge with a steel-reinforced concrete deck set on concrete piles. Crews then removed the causeway’s bridge; nature reclaimed the causeway, now frequented by boaters and fishermen.

This spring, a Lane Construction Corp. crew started rebuilding the long-abandoned causeway, over which Route 2 traffic will soon be diverted as a new bridge takes shape across Sibley Pond.

According to Wendell Harriman, P.E., the Maine Department of Transportation resident engineer assigned to the project, traffic will use the causeway

until the new bridge opens late this year.

“We plan on having traffic on the [new] bridge

by December 11th,” he said.

The MDOT will spend $7.8 million to build a new Sibley Pond Bridge because time and traffic have impacted the 1938 bridge, as evidenced by recent pier repairs. “They’ve been repaired quite a few times in the past,” Harriman said. “As part of this project, we did more repairs before starting work on the new bridge.”

Throughout the day, trucks, passenger vehicles, and RVs roll across the 1938 bridge. Log and delivery trucks dominate the commercial traffic, which “never seems to stop,” said MDOT bridge inspector Guy Hews as three log trucks convoyed east-to-west across the existing bridge. Then a fourth, smaller log truck rumbled eastbound onto the bridge from the Canaan shore.

Nearby on the causeway lay a long pipe pile, resembling a massive 50-to-55-foot nail painted MDOT green. The new bridge will incorporate a “next beam-designed bridge deck on pipe piles,” Harriman said during an interview at his office trailer on Canaan’s Tropical Fish Road. The pipe piles “have concrete and [steel] reinforcing” inside them, he indicated.

Using a Link-Belt crane, Lane Construction employees are driving 36 pipe piles to form the

See SIBLEY, Page 5

BDN PHOTO BY BRIAN SWARTZ

Construction started this spring on a new 790-foot bridge that will carry Route 2 across Sibley Pond on the Canaan-Pittsfield town line.

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Sibley Continued from Page 4 bridge’s nine piers, with four piles per pier. “The piles are driven all the way to ledge,” Hew said, estimating that the piles are driven an average 45 feet deep before reaching bedrock.

A reinforced-concrete pier cap covers each pier; once the piers are completed, the crane will lift into place the precast concrete next beams that will extend from pier to pier — and that’s why traffic will divert to the causeway.

“We’ve got to shut down the [existing] bridge so we can move the crane out there to pick up the next beams,” Harriman explained.

Manufactured in Vermont and trucked across Route 2 to Canaan, the next beams form the bridge deck’s substructure and the bridge deck itself, according to Harriman. The crane will set four next beams side by side to form a single span, and 10 such spans will form the new 790foot bridge.

The next-beam design was selected among three competing designs, Harriman indicated. “This is a designbuild project” with “certain criteria

BDN PHOTOS BY BRIAN SWARTZ

This view of the Sibley Pond construction site reveals the existing Route 2 bridge (right), two concretecapped piers already built for the new bridge (center), and the rebuilt causeway across which traffic will be diverted this summer (left). The wood beams will be removed before the causeway is paved and guard rails are set in place. A temporary bridge will span the gap between the causeway’s two sections.

(Bottom right): To build the nine piers for the new Sibley Pond Bridge, workers are driving four long pylon piles for each pier. Each pylon will be driven an average 45 feet deep to bedrock. defined” for the new bridge, he said; five such bridge projects are currently underway in Maine.

For Sibley Pond, the MDOT select-

ed the design submitted by Lane Construction and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

“The new bridge is designed [to last] for 100 years,” Harriman said.

Besides the pipe piles, Lane Construction will drive eight H-piles for

See BRIDGE, Page 10

6 | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | Bangor Daily News

Eastport Port Authority project will get Mainers moving

By Brian Swartz

With the Eastport Port Authority undertaking a $7 million expansion project, could commercial rail service return to eastern Washington County?

Truckers would likely benefit, since restoring such rail service would involve building a transload facility in Perry. By carrying freight to this facility, trains could reduce the long distances now traveled by trucks, and the Eastport Port Authority could handle more freight. More trucks might be needed to haul this freight, incoming or outgoing, between Eastport and Perry.

Ayers Junction. The Maine Department of Transportation quickly acquired this branch — and also, fortunately: • 12.56 miles extending from Ayers Junction to St. Croix Junction in Calais in Calais; • 8.9 miles extending from Ayers Junction to a point just west of Route 1 in Perry.

Today, the only remaining commercial rail service in Washington County involves the Pam Am Railway and a 10.6-mile spur connecting Milltown Junction in Calais with the Woodland Pulp LLC pulp mill in Baileyville. Purchased from Domtar by the International Grand Investment Corp. of Hong Kong, the mill produces only pulp; Domtar had already shut down an existing paper machine.

Commercial rail reduced to a few miles

Deepwater port served only by highway

Until 1978, the Maine Central Railroad operated trains to Eastport along a 15½-mile spur from Ayers Junction in Pembroke. The spur primarily served sardine canneries located in Eastport.

When the sardine canning industry faded 40-50 years ago, shipments dropped dramatically along the Eastport Branch; the MCRR abandoned it in 1978 and removed the rails and ties.

In 1985, the Maine Central abandoned its 134mile Calais Branch, which ran from Brewer to

According to the “Eastport Gateway Project — Engineering Study” completed by HNTB for the Eastport Port Authority and released in August 2009, a commercial port opened in Eastport in 1977, the year before MCRR abandoned its Eastport Branch. That abandonment limited the surface shipment of freight to Eastport to 100,000-pound trucks.

The Eastport Port Authority gradually increased shipments via Estes Head over the years; shipments exceeded 400,000 tons in 2010. Bai-

SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM LOWE

A construction project currently underway at Estes Head in Eastport will expand the cargohandling capabilities of the Eastport Port Authority, which has proposed building a transload facility in Pembroke and rehabilitating the railroad tracks extending from there to Calais. Trucks would carry freight between the trans-load facility and Estes Head. leyville-produced pulp comprises most tonnage, with dairy cows recently appearing on Eastport cargo manifests.

Despite its excellent deep-water pier at Estes Head, the Eastport Port Authority primarily handles outgoing cargo; eastern Maine’s manufacturing infrastructure requires little inbound cargo, especially with nearby ports available at Searsport and Saint John, New Brunswick.

The construction project currently underway at Estes Head will add a bi-directional conveyor system, an outdoor storage area, and a warehouse.

When completed, the project will provide the Eastport Port Authority with additional capability to handle specific cargoes.

According to the “Eastport Gateway Project,” a “lack of rail freight service” hampers cargo diversification and future growth at Eastport. “Rail freight access is a necessity if the Port of Eastport is to continue to grow and provide increased eco-

nomic vitality to Washington County,” the report states.

The Eastport Port Authority commissioned the engineering study “to estimate the cost of restoring rail freight service” to Eastport “and to determine a feasible location, layout and cost for a rail to truck trans-load facility within reasonable distance” of Estes Head, according to the report.

As quoted by Christopher Cousins in the March 22, 2011 NEWS, Eastport Port Authority director Christopher Gardner noted that “if we can garner that rail connection or at least bring it close to the nearby town of Perry, there’s a lot of markets out there to be captured.”

At Estes Head, the Eastport Port Authority pier has berths measuring 900 feet and 550 feet; the ocean depth is 64 feet at mean low tide. Extending a railroad from Perry directly to Estes Head likely will not occur; rebuilding the 21 miles of railroad from St. Croix Junction to a Perry trans-load facility

Continued on next page

Bangor Daily News, Thursday | May 26, 2011 | 7

Continued from previous page could happen, if funding becomes available.

The “Eastport Gateway Project” examined the construction factors and costs related to rebuilding the existing rail line and a Perry trans-load facility; possible track upgrades included operating 263,000- or 286,000pound cars on the line.

“The purpose of a rail to truck transfer facility in Perry is to facilitate the transfer of various commodities to and from rail cars to trucks, both imports and exports, as well as to warehousing and open ground storage,” the engineering study reported.

Locating a trans-load facility The “Eastport Gateway Project” revealed that a trans-load facility should cover at least 22 acres, with an expansion “to approximately 72 acres” possible in the future. After identifying and discussing four sites where a transload facility could be built in Perry, the report recommended “a wooded upland further along the rail corridor towards Ayers Junction.”

Field inspections were conducted along the affected railroad corridors in mid-June 2009.

The 8.9-mile section from Ayers Junction to Perry would require extensive reconstruction — and replacing three bridges.

BDN PHOTOS BY BRIAN SWARTZ

For trains to reach a new truck-served trans-load facility in Pembroke, the Maine Department of Transportation would have to rebuild approximately 21½ miles of track from Calais to Pembroke, including this section crossing a marsh in Calais.

The “Eastport Gateway Project” cited four options and their estimated costs for building a Perry trans-load facility and rehabilitating railroad tracks from there to Calais; each option included cost estimates to upgrade supporting track in New

Brunswick.

Cost estimates for work within Maine ranged from $37.8 million to $57.7 million, based on rail-car weights and train speeds. All four options included $9.882 million for initial trans-load facility construction.

8 | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | Bangor Daily News

Freightliner of Maine trucks are a benefit to working truckers

By Brian Swartz SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

Truckers driving new 2010 and ’11 trucks purchased at Freightliner of Maine are reporting “good news,” according to FOM General Manager Tim Caldwell.

Already the exclusive Freightliner dealer for Maine, Freightliner of Maine also has the Western Star franchise for southern Maine. The company sells and services Freightliners at 422 Perry Road in Bangor and 10 Terminal St. in Westbrook; the Westbrook facility also sells and services Western Stars. Freightliner of Maine operates parts departments in Bangor and Westbrook and at 7 Rodman Road, Auburn and 2 Piper Way, Waterville and sells and services Barko loaders and Thermo King refrigeration units.

Under licensing agreements with Freightliner of Maine, Ouellette’s Garage in St. David and The Big Rig Shop in Oxford carry Freightliner parts and perform Freightliner warranty service.

Freightliner of Maine distributes Dunlop, Goodyear, Kelly, and Ohtsu

tires; the company’s Bangor headquarters is a Goodyear retreader.

Of the various 2010 truck engines available on new trucks, Freightliner of Maine equips its trucks with Cummins or Detroit Diesel engines. No matter which new engine powers a Freightliner of Maine truck, the results are proving favorable.

“Everybody came out with new engines last year to meet [tightened] emissions standards,” Caldwell said.

“The big news is, the ’10 emissions engines that we have are a new technology, and they’re working well.”

The 2010 engines supplanted 2007 engines, which “were a major step” toward reducing engine emissions, but delivered “mixed results with that technology,” he indicated. A 2007 engine recirculates exhaust gases, and a filter removes particulates.

“Exhaust gas recirculation is hard on motors,” Caldwell said. “More water accumulates in the engine, there’s more dirt. The engine has to work harder; that affects gas mileage.”

When a 2007 engine-equipped truck operates at highway speeds, heat supplied

See FREIGHTLINER, Page 9

BDN PHOTO BY BRIAN SWARTZ

During the May 2011 Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo, the Freightliner of Maine display included a new Freightliner Coronado SD (left), purchased by Randy Bourgoin of “American Loggers” fame, and another new Freightliner Coronado SD, equipped with a Detroit Diesel DD15.

Truckers are loggin’ it BDN PHOTO BY BRIAN SWARTZ

A familiar sight throughout Maine, two log-laden trucks rumble south along Route 201 near downtown Skowhegan in early April 2011.

Bangor Daily News | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | 9

Behind the scenes at the May 14, 2011 Truck Driving Championship

Freightliner

Continued from Page 8 to the particulate filter will “burn off”the collected particulates, Caldwell said. However, if “a truck would never stay hot enough to do a passive regen[eration],” the on-board computer will “idle the truck at high engine rpms,” he noted.“The driver can’t use the truck for 30 minutes or so, and it’s sitting there, burning fuel.”

So, while reducing emissions, the 2007 truck engines also reduced fuel mileage, thus increasing costs for truckers and motor carriers. Today, by employing a different technology, engine manufacturers are producing 2010 engines that cut emissions and improve fuel mileage.

On a 2010 engine, urea is injected “into the exhaust stream after combustion,” and the engine recirculates less exhaust gas, Caldwell said. The technology lowers engine emissions, keeps the engine cleaner, improves fuel mileage, and provides better throttle response, he indicated.

Although urea consumption approximates 2 percent of fuel consumption, a 2010 truck engine delivers 5-7 percent higher fuel mileage when compared to a 2007 engine. “The oil-change interval has been extended to 40,000 miles,” which reduces maintenance costs, Caldwell said.

BDN PHOTOS BY BRIAN SWARTZ

AT LEFT: Spectators watch as a commercial driver steers a tractortanker rig through the course while participating in the 2011 Maine State Truck Driving Championships, held May 14 in Hermon.

AT RIGHT: Judges measure how close a commercial driver has parked his big rig to a simulated curb while participating in the 2011 Maine State Truck Driving Championships. The event was held May 14 in Hermon.

He noted that the B-50 life on new truck engines “has been increased to 1.2 million miles from 750,000 miles”; this means that new trucks should achieve longer operational life “without a major engine failure,” Caldwell said.

Among new Freightliners equipped with the 2010 engines are the Coronado SD, Coronado Classic, and 114SD. “The Coronado SD has been a real success for us,” Caldwell noted. “It’s a heavy haul application, very robust, durable. That business seems to be coming back a little bit, especially among people working in the woods.”

As new truck prices have risen, Freightliner of Maine has seen sales increase for gliders, defined as “power” or “roller.” “A [power] glider is a [new] truck cab and framerails that’s missing two of the three major components, basically a cab with an engine and no transmission or rear end,” Caldwell said. Federal law allows a truck owner to purchase a power glider and install in it the transmission and rear end taken from an existing truck. Parts are matched by serial numbers.

A “roller” glider typically is a new truck cab and chassis, but no engine. Federal law lets a truck owner install in a “roller” glider the engine taken from an existing truck.

A truck owner can also replace an existing engine with a similar engine; according to Caldwell, engine manufacturers still produce replacement engines dating to the early 1990s. Engines are

swapped by serial numbers.

“The cost of a glider can’t exceed 80 percent of the cost of a new truck without the buyer paying the federal excise tax,” Caldwell pointed out. “They’ve always been available; there are a lot of them being sold. It’s getting to be a big business.”

He explained that economic factors, including

new truck prices, are causing some motor carriers to “hang onto trucks and not trade them as often.

They’re maintaining them more, which has boosted business in our service departments.

“They’re also finding it’s cost-effective to buy a glider,” Caldwell said.“They get a new truck with some older components, and it costs less than buying a new truck.”

10 | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | Bangor Daily News

ABOVE ARTWORK BY PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF; BDN PHOTO BY BRIAN SWARTZ

The new 790-foot Sibley Pond Bridge will feature two 12-foot travel lanes and two 6-foot shoulders to carry Route 2 traffic across the Canaan Bog. (Below) Traveling west-bound on the existing Sibley Pond Bridge in Canaan, a log truck approaches a pier surrounded by wooden framework. Several piers were repaired before construction started on a new bridge.

Bridge Continued from Page 5

each abutment. The bridge will “run straight” from “shore to shore,” and on the Pittsfield shore, the abutment will slightly encroach on the 1938 bridge, Harriman said.

Rising at a 1 percent grade from either shore, the new bridge will reach its apex at its center. Measuring 39 feet, 4 inches “from outside to outside,” the bridge will feature two 12-foot travel lanes and two 6-foot shoulders, Harriman noted. Two drains placed at either end will divert runoff from the bridge deck.

The Lane Construction crew will pave a 22-foot roadway on both causeway approaches, install guardrails, and place a temporary bridge before closing the existing bridge in a few weeks.

Then the crane will move onto the 1938 bridge so crews can finish the new bridge; after doing so, crews will

move the crane to that bridge before demolishing and removing the older bridge.

“They will cut the 29 piers to a depth of 1 foot below the pond bed,” Harriman said.

By rebuilding the causeway, the MDOT avoided creating a long detour around the construction site, he indicated. Before the contract closes on June 15, 2012, a Lane Construction crew will restore the causeway “back to its original condition,” Harriman said.

So trucks will soon disappear from the Sibley Pond Bridge, which lasted 23 years beyond its planned 50-year obsolescence. For some six months, truckers will experience history as they use a causeway last crossed by their grandfathers or great-grandfathers in 1938.

The Maine State Highway Commission knew how to build bridges back then — and the MDOT certainly knows how to build bridges today.

Bangor Daily News | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | 11

By tractor trailer, truck, boat, bus, train, or car, Mainers are on the move

BDN PHOTOS BY BRIAN SWARTZ AND DEBRA BELL

(Left) Cars are transported to Maine islands to bring people and supplies. These vehicles are departing the ferry onto Great Cranberry Island. (Middle) An over-the-road tractor-trailer rolls along Main Street in Presque Isle on a cold winter's day. (Right) Road construction in Winterport has cars and tractor trailers moving cautiously.

MMTA renames annual scholarship in honor of past chair John Austin

By Brian Swartz

to transportation.”

The MMTA is soliciting contributions to the scholarship fund. “What better way [is there] to honor the memory of our good friend John Austin than being able to deliver educational opportunities to kids who might not otherwise be able to afford it,” Parke wrote in “Maine News.”

Applications are due by late May each year; only graduating high school seniors can apply. For more information, log onto www.mmta.com/jwa.

According to www.mmta.com., “final selection

SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

The Maine Motor Transport Association has renamed its transportation-related scholarship for the late John W. Austin, a past MMTA chairman.

Born in October 1958, Austin owned Portland Air Freight prior to his death in Portland on Friday, Jan. 7, 2011. He served the MMTA in various capacities for many years, including a long stint on the MMTA Board of Directors. Austin chaired that board, its executive and nominating committees, and the MMTA’s budget and political action committees.

Austin also served on MMTA Workers’ Compensation Trust Board of Trustees.

“He was always committed to the trucking industry, often leading the charge on issues, particularly political issues,” wrote MMTA CEO Brian Parke in the March/April 2011 “Maine News,” an MMTA magazine. “He was never shy with his political views, and you always knew which side of the issue he was on.

“I will miss his unique articulation of the facts. I will miss his trusted counsel on matters personal and professional. I will miss his unassuming presence, his genuine concern, and his sunny outlook on life,” Parke wrote.

Austin, who lived in Saco, is survived by his wife, Beth, and their two children, Reeve and Kylemore.

To honor Austin, the MMTA renamed its scholarship fund as the John W. Austin Memori-

MMTA PHOTO

John Austin, a past Maine Motor Transport Association chairman, poses with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in this photo provided by the MMTA. To honor Austin, who died in early January 2011, the MMTA has renamed its scholarship fund as the John W. Austin Memorial Scholarship Fund. al Scholarship Fund. “This scholarship is for graduating high school seniors going into trucking or the transportation sector,” Parke said during an April 2011 interview. “An applicant must be planning to study in a field with some nexus

will be made based upon criteria which include prior academic performance, recommendations from instructors, financial need and/or demonstrated ability with respect to skills relevant to the motor transportation industry.”

Contributions can be sent to: John W. Austin Memorial Scholarship Fund Attn: Brian Parke P.O. Box 857 Augusta, ME 04332-0857 Phone: (207)623-4128

12 | Thursday | May 26, 2011 | Bangor Daily News

Nationwide texting ban was already in effect for commercial drivers

By Brian Swartz SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

On Monday, May 23, the Legislature passed LD 736, a bill that prohibits all drivers from texting while driving. However, certain drivers already could not text while driving: commercial drivers, including truckers and bus drivers.

On Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced an interim texting ban for commercial drivers.

Applied to the drivers of buses and large trucks, the ban came after several serious accidents involved texting as a contributing factor to the crash, including a May 2009 accident involving a texting conductor and a trolley on the MBTA’s Green Line in Boston.

According to a USDOT press release, drivers violating the ban could face “up to $2,750” in “civil or criminal penalties.”

While many drivers of all vehicle classes text behind the wheel, commercial drivers have a special responsibility to operate safely. Research conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration indicates that for every 6 seconds spent texting, a driver looks away from the road an average 4.6 seconds, the time needed to drive “the length of a football field, including the end zones,” according to a USDOT press release.

Texting drivers “are more than 20 times more likely to get involved in an accident than [are] non-distracted drivers,” the FMCSA reports.

Texting has exploded, as reported by the CTIA-The Wireless Association. From Jan. 1-June 30, 2005, association members calculated that their customers transmitted 32.6 billion text messages.

From Jan. 1-June 30, 2009, association members calculated that customers transmitted 740 billion text messages. “This represents a 2,200 percent increase in five years,” the FMCSA noted.

“Considering the increase in texting, FMCSA maintains that texting

by CMV drivers while operating on public roads has the potential of becoming a widespread safety problem in the absence of an explicit Federal prohibition,” the agency reported.

On Wednesday, March 31, 2010, LaHood announced a proposed rule to replace the interim texting ban for commercial drivers.

Published in the Federal Register on April 1 as 75 FR 16391, the proposed rule underwent regulatory review and drew more than 400 public comments.

In its final wording, the proposed rule appeared in the Federal Register on Monday, Sept. 27, 2010. Titled “Limiting the Use of Wireless Communication Devices,” the rule took effect on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010.

The rule “prohibits texting by commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers while operating in interstate commerce and imposes sanctions, including civil penalties and disqualification from operating CMVs in interstate commerce, for drivers who fail to comply with this rule.”

The rule also: • Prohibits “motor carriers … from requiring or allowing their drivers to engage in texting while driving”; • Amended the FMCSA’s CDL regulations “to add to the list of disqualifying offenses a conviction under State or local traffic laws or ordinances that prohibit texting by CDL drivers while operating a CMV, including school bus drivers.”

BDN PHOTO BY BRIAN SWARTZ The text ban imposes stiff penalties: “Civil penalties may be On Monday, May 23, the Legislature enacted a ban on texting by imposed on drivers, in an amount up to $2,750 [per violation], and on employers, in an amount up to $11,000 [per violation].” all drivers. Last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation enacted a rule that banned texting by all commercial drivers, including The FMCSA can also revoke a commercial driver’s authorization those behind the wheels of large trucks and buses. to haul freight between states.

According to the FMCSA, “this rulemaking increases safety on the truck- and bus-related crashes, fatalities, and injuries associated with Nation’s highways by reducing the prevalence of or preventing certain distracted driving.”