AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Department of Transportation measured traffic volumes on some state highways Monday that were between 10 and 20 times greater than normal.
Traffic engineers who monitored travel throughout the weekend estimate that 15,000 additional vehicles came into Maine to witness the solar eclipse, along with the many more people who traveled within the state to view the phenomenon, the department said in a release Tuesday.
The state said additional details on traffic counts from the entire eclipse weekend would not be available until after this week.
"The Maine Department of Transportation's goal was to get our customers safely where they needed to be for the eclipse, and that happened," MaineDOT traffic engineer Colby Fortier-Brown said in the release. "Even though there were traffic delays on state highways as people headed home from the path of totality, we are pleased to report that our state did not experience any major traffic safety incidents related to the eclipse. Our team was able to predict where travel was going to be heavy and help keep vehicles moving safely — albeit more slowly than usual in some areas."
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In New Hampshire, travelers were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic much of the way until about 2 a.m. Tuesday, clogging up southbound Interstate 93. Southbound traffic on Interstate 89 was also heavy Monday evening, the Associated Press reported.
Prior to the eclipse, the biggest traffic back-up observed by state traffic engineers in Maine was on Route 201 between Skowhegan and Jackman, where there were delays of approximately one hour, according to the release.
After the eclipse, several state highways in the western and central parts of the state experienced multi-hour delays as eclipse-viewers traveled back south. Traffic engineers observed the most congestion on I-95 north of Bangor as well as Routes 6, 27, and 201, the release stated. The biggest traffic back-up after the eclipse was a four-hour delay measured on Route 201 between Jackman and Skowhegan, MaineDOT said.
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