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"A new study ranks Maine No. 8 nationally for rural roads in poor condition.The state is No. 9 in deficient bridges.Pine Point Crossing Bridge in Scarborough is one of those bridges.Mitchell Blodgett works for Dennis Paper and Food Service. He makes deliveries along Route 9. Sometime he drives up to 200 miles a day.\"There are a lot of things being done to the roads, but there are a lot of roads that need more,\" said Blodgett.Steve Wills said Pine Point Crossing Bridge isn't even the worst he's seen.\"River Road in Windham is a true nightmare, but I guess they're fixing it and we know to stay away from that because it's a constant battle,\" said Wills.Jim Hanley is a road warrior in that fight.WMTW News 8 caught up with him along River Road. He's president of the Maine Better Transportation Association.\"You don't have to go far to see trouble spots,\" said Hanley.The study, done by the National Transportation Research Group TRIP, found that 28 percent of rural roads in Maine were considered in poor condition in 2012.A year later, a review of the state's bridges found 16 percent were considered structurally deficient.Hanley said it goes far beyond just an economic issue.\"As the miles of bad road increase so do fatality rates so it becomes really as much a public safety issue as it is anything else,\" he said.If Congress doesn't act soon, an estimated $196 million of federal money will be cut for Maine highway and transit improvements.MBTA is working with leaders on all levels to get more funding and reallocate the dollars that are available to start making a dent.\"This road behind us is costing about a million and a quarter dollars per mile to repair. So if you have a backlog of thousands of miles, which we do, that need reconstruction, we are funding now at a level where we're just picking away at it maybe 30-40 miles per year, we're just never going to catch up,\" said Hanley.Vehicle traffic is expected to increase in Maine over the next 15 years; the latest figures show that 15 percent more vehicle traffic will be on the roads by the year 2030."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wmtw.com/article/report-finds-rural-maine-roads-in-bad-shape/2003461>