Editor’s note: This article is by Robin Smith of The Caledonian Record, in which it was first publiched Aug. 20, 2013.
DERBY LINE — Village trustees have heard that U.S. Homeland Security no longer will do a major expansion at the Interstate 91 port of entry.
A full-scale expansion with rerouting of I-91 on and off ramps and moving the roadway to make room for a larger port facility and more lanes is no longer feasible.
That plan, with some redesign, went through the environmental impact study phase and then was shelved — after the massive truck line-ups created by the housing boom ended with the Great Recession.
Now, the plan is for an expanded building, but within the existing footprint, trustee Keith Beadle says.
And he added that frequent travelers through the port shouldn’t expect any new project any time soon.
The trustees or their representatives meet monthly with representatives of Customs and Border Protection and with representatives of the U.S. General Services Administration, which actually owns and operates the port facility for Homeland Security.
But Beadle said that GSA has not attended recent meetings so he didn’t know if there is any actual plan in the works or whether it is still in the discussion stage.
Meanwhile, the existing port built when the interstate was opened in the 1960s does not have enough lanes to handle all the traffic — truck and passenger vehicle — that uses the port during the summers when Quebec motorists flock to the U.S. to spend the Canadian dollar.
The Canadian dollar is and has been close to par with the American dollar for years now, and the Canadian government doubled the amount of purchases that can be brought back into Canada after each trip.
And when traffic lines up four lanes deep at I-91, the spillover causes long lines in downtown Derby Line and even in nearby Beebe Plain, especially on holiday weekends.
