PORTLAND, Maine — Memorial Day weekend marks Maine's unofficial start to summer, bringing increased traffic along the Maine Turnpike (I-95).
The Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) expects traffic to be up 1.5 percent over last year's Memorial Day weekend. Staff predict roughly 992,670 vehicles will travel the Turnpike over the four-day period of Friday through Monday.
Heaviest northbound traffic on I-95: Friday (5/24) from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Heaviest southbound traffic: Monday (5/27) afternoon, with most traffic expected near the New Hampshire border at the Piscataqua River Bridge, near the York tolls.
The MTA expects tens of thousands of vehicles will leave Maine in the afternoon hours.
"The MTA would like to remind travelers to travel through work zones at the posted speed limit, even when there are no workers present. Fines in work zones are double the normal cost. Many of the work zones contain narrowed lanes and must be traveled at slower speeds for safety," MTA staff wrote in a press release.
RELATED: Highway workers plead people to 'drive like you work here' to prevent further injuries and deaths
Traffic advisories: lane shifts, narrowing
The MTA reports that construction activities will pause over the long weekend, however there are sites where lane shifts will remain in place, like at the Stroudwater River bridges and Pan Am Railway bridges at Mile 46.7 and Mile 47.9, respectively. On the northern end of the turnpike, the Exit 103 bridge in West Gardiner will remain down to one lane, which may cause delays and slow traffic southbound on the mainline in the area of miles 103 to 105.
The Maine Turnpike State Farm Safety Patrol will also be in operation over the four-day period. The Safety Patrol is a free service that provides assistance to stranded motorists on the Maine Turnpike. It also clears the Turnpike of debris and other hazards and provides temporary traffic control at minor accident scenes to help keep Maine Turnpike customers safe and traffic flowing smoothly. In addition to routine weekday patrol during peak AM and PM commute hours in the Portland area, there will also be patrol service from Kittery to Wells, Friday through Monday, from 11 AM to 7 PM.
Triple A estimates that 43 million Americans will kick off the season with a Memorial Day Vacation.
That’s the highest amount of memorial day travel forecasted since 2005.
37.6 million of them are taking to the road—which is the most on record for the holiday.
1.93 million New Englanders will be traveling for the holiday weekend as well. 1.68 million will do so by car.
'ASecureLife' says Maine is ranked as the #1 safest state for Memorial Day travel in 2019. That information is based on fatal car crash data over the past 5 years.
Nationally, 3.25 million people will take to the skies. 154 thousand of them will be New Englanders.
Memorial Day is the third-most-deadly holiday for road travel. That’s followed by the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
For more information and to sign up for alerts about the upcoming Piscataqua River Bridge project and the ongoing York Toll Plaza Relocation, go to the Maine Ahead website: www.buildingabettergateway.com.