Maine Truckers Facing Higher Turnpike Tolls

Truckers on the Maine Turnpike, which includes a stretch of Interstate 95, will pay up to 40% more in tolls beginning in November.

The turnpike’s board last week gave for preliminary approval of a new rate schedule saying they needed to raise at least $21 million more a year in revenue in order to pay for improvements and meet their bond obligations.

“The truck rates are going to increase by 37% to 40%,” said Brian Parke, president of the Maine Motor Transport Association.

To run the entire turnpike — stretching 109 miles from Kittery at the New Hampshire state line to Augusta — the toll for a 5-axle truck could rise from the current $19.20 to $26.35, Parke said.

Opened in 1947, the Maine turnpike was the second toll road built in the United States. The first was the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The turnpike board is still tinkering with the set of variables that make up the toll rate schedule and is expected to vote on the final rate schedule at its Aug. 16 meeting, said turnpike spokesman Dan Morin.

“There might be some minor adjustments,” he said of the truck rates.