The Maine Department of Transportation, also known as MaineDOT (occasionally referred to as MDOT), is the office of state government charged with the regulation and maintenance of roads, rail, ferries, and other public transport infrastructure in the state of

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. An exception is the Maine Turnpike, which is maintained by the Maine Turnpike Authority. MaineDOT reports on the adequacy of roads, highways, and bridges in Maine. It also monitors environmental factors that affect the motor public such as stormwater, ice/snow buildup on roads, and crashes with

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

. MaineDOT was founded in 1972 and replaced the former Maine State Highway Commission.

Organization

MaineDOT is an agency that consists of several offices: * Bureau of Planning * Bureau of Maintenance and Operations * Office of Passenger Transportation * Office of Freight Transportation * Office of Communications * Bureau of Project Development * Capital Resource Management * Transportation Service Center * Environmental Office * Office of Legal Services and Internal Audit * Safety Office * Contract Procurement Office * Office of Engineering Quality and Oversight

Road

See

List of Maine State Routes State routes in Maine are highways within the Maine State Highway System that are signed and maintained by the Maine Department of Transportation, and not U.S. Routes or routes of the Interstate Highway System. Some parts of these roads are maint ...

Interstate 95 in Maine Interstate 95 (I-95) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs north–south from Miami, Florida to Houlton, Maine. The highway enters Maine from the New Hampshire state line in Kittery and runs for to the Canada–United Sta ...

U.S. Route 1 in Maine U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in the U.S. state of Maine is a major north–south section of the United States Numbered Highway System, serving the eastern part of the state. It parallels the Atlantic Ocean from New Hampshire north through ...

and

U.S. Route 2 in Maine U.S. Route 2 (US 2) in the U.S. state of Maine is a principal east–west route through the central portion of the state, extending from the New Hampshire border in Gilead, Maine, Gilead to the town of Houlton, Maine, Houlton les ...

Rail

MaineDOT owns hundreds of miles of railway track in the state, much of it acquired as the result of abandonment of rail on unprofitable lines by private carriers. The state does not itself operate a railway, instead leasing lines or engaging private contractors to operate on state-owned rails: * Former

Bangor and Aroostook Railroad The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County, Maine, Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-genera ...

line abandoned by

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway was a Class II freight railroad that operated in the U.S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec between 2002 and 2014. It was headquartered in Hermon, Maine. Its Canadian subs ...

: ** Madawaska to

Millinocket Millinocket is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 4,114 at the 2020 census. Millinocket's economy has historically been centered on forest products and recreation, but the paper company closed in 2008. Histor ...

, now state-owned / Irving-operated

Maine Northern Railway The Maine Northern Railway Company Limited is a U.S. and Canadian short line railroad owned by the New Brunswick Railway Company, a holding company that is part of "Irving Transportation Services", a division within the industrial conglomerate ...

* Former Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad line: ** of heritage line in

Waldo County Waldo County is a county in the state of Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,607. Its county seat is Belfast. The county was founded on February 7, 1827, from a portion of Hancock County and named after Briga ...

operating as Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railway * Former Maine Central lines abandoned by Guilford: **

Calais Branch The Calais Branch is a mothballed railroad line in Maine that was operated by the Maine Central Railroad Company (MEC). The Calais Branch is long and connects Brewer to Calais. It was constructed in 1898 and carried freight and passengers over ...

from Bangor to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

: mostly abandoned, but MaineDOT leases a segment between

Brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...

and Ellsworth to the

Downeast Scenic Railroad The Downeast Scenic Railroad (reporting mark DSRX) is a heritage railway in Ellsworth, Maine which is owned and operated by the Downeast Rail Heritage Trust, which is a 501(c)3 charitable organization founded in the fall of 2005. The railroad op ...

. **

Rockland Branch The Rockland Branch is a railroad from Brunswick, Maine to Rockland, Maine. A charter was granted in 1849 to build a railway from the Portland and Kennebec Railroad on the west side of the Kennebec River to Rockland. Construction through the roc ...

from Brunswick to Rockland. MaineDOT awarded a lease to the

Central Maine and Quebec Railway The Central Maine and Québec Railway was a Class II railroad, Class II freight railroad operating in the United States, U.S. states of Maine and Vermont and the Canada, Canadian province of Quebec with headquarters in Bangor, Maine. It was own ...

in September 2015. Freight operations on the branch began on January 1, 2016. In 2012, MaineDOT sought an operator to restore passenger service on St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad tracks to Lewiston and

Auburn, Maine Auburn is a city in south-central Maine, within the United States. Settled in the foothills of the Western Lakes and Mountains region of the state, The city serves as the county seat of Androscoggin County, Maine, Androscoggin County. The popul ...

Ferry

Maine state law requires MaineDOT to operate regular

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

routes, known as the Maine State Ferry Service, to specific island localities along Maine's

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

coast. All ferries can carry passengers, vehicles, and freight. , the service consists of six routes. The law also provides for the Maine State Ferry Service Advisory Board, which is charged with advising MaineDOT on all ferry-related matters and recommending changes via an annual report, as well as naming MaineDOT's ferry vessels and terminals. The board is composed of one member from each island served by the ferries and three members appointed by the Commissioner of Transportation, each with two-year terms. Besides MaineDOT, coastal Maine is served by a number of other private and public ferry operators. A notable example is Casco Bay Lines, a non-profit created by emergency state legislation in 1981 to maintain ferry service between

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

and islands in the neighboring

Casco Bay Casco Bay is an bay, open bay of the Gulf of Maine on the coast of Maine in the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chart for Casco Bay marks the dividing line between the bay and the Gulf of Maine as running from ...

References

External links

* MaineDO

* US Department of Transportatio

Sources

* Working with the MaineDOT: A Guide for Municipal Official

{{authority control State agencies of Maine, Transportation Transportation in Maine State departments of transportation of the United States