Interstate 395 (I-395) is a

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States. Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which con ...

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

. The western terminus of the route is at a

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passes over or under the ...

with

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

near downtown Bangor, where I-395 continues west as U.S. Route 2 (US 2) and State Route 100 (SR 100). The eastern terminus is at US 1A in

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, ...

Route description

I-395 begins as an extension of Hammond Street at an at-grade intersection with US 2 and SR 100 on the south side of

Bangor International Airport Bangor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport on the west side of the city of Bangor, in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Owned and operated by the City of Bangor, the airport has a single runway measuring . F ...

. US 2 and SR 100 turn north from the intersection onto Odlin Road, while I-395 reaches a

with its parent route,

, immediately to the east. The four-lane freeway is joined by SR 15 and travels east around the south side of Bangor, also becoming concurrent with US 202 near the Beal University campus. I-395 then intersects Main Street, carrying US 1A and US 202, near the

Cross Insurance Center The Cross Insurance Center is a 5,800-seat multi-purpose arena in Bangor, Maine, United States. The arena holds up to 8,500 people for concerts, and features an attached 2,000-person convention center. It was built at an estimated cost of $65&nbs ...

on the west side of the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...

. The freeway crosses the Penobscot River on the Veterans' Remembrance Bridge, which carries four through lanes and two auxiliary lanes from Bangor to

. SR 15 leaves I-395 at a junction on the east bank of the river, while the freeway continues southeast through the outskirts of Brewer. I-395 travels into the rural outskirts of the Bangor area and turns northeastward to terminate at a

partial cloverleaf interchange A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to-arterial interchange designs in North America. It has also bee ...

with Wilson Street (part of US 1A) east of Brewer. US 1A continues southeast towards the

Down East "Down East", also "Downeast", is a term for parts of eastern coastal New England and Canada, particularly the U.S. state of Maine and Canada's Maritime Provinces, an area that closely corresponds to the historical French territory of Acadia. Th ...

region of the state, serving Ellsworth and several coastal towns. The freeway primarily serves as a bypass of Bangor and Brewer for travelers wishing to access the Downeast/Bar Harbor region of Maine. It also connects I-95 to the region via US 1A. It is designated by the Maine state government as part of Highway Corridor Priority 1, which includes all Interstate Highways in the state as well as other important roads. Traffic volumes on the highway, measured in terms of

annual average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

by the

Maine Department of Transportation 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 ...

(MaineDOT), ranged in 2017 from a minimum of 8,470 vehicles near its eastern terminus to a maximum of 17,090 vehicles on the Veterans Remembrance Bridge.

History

I-395 was originally named the Bangor Industrial Spur and was intended to relieve traffic on Hammond and Union streets in the city's industrial area. Construction began on December 2, 1957, and was part of a larger project to construct I-95 around Bangor. The first section of the highway, from Hammond Street to Main Street in southern Bangor, opened on September 24, 1959, and was formally dedicated on October 29. It was the first Interstate Highway to be completed with federal funding under the

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, was enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law. With an original authorization of $25 billion for t ...

and cost an estimated $3.79 million to construct. The Veterans' Remembrance Bridge, connecting Bangor to Brewer over the Penobscot River, was dedicated on November 11, 1986. It was designated in 1985 by the state legislature following disagreements between local groups over which person or war should be honored by the name. The extension of I-395 over the bridge and through Brewer to Wilson Street (US 1A) opened to traffic on November 17. During its first days of public use, the Brewer section was targeted for speed enforcement due to its speed limit and low traffic.

Extension

Plans to extend I-395 to connect it to SR 9 began as early as 2001. In February 2008, the

(MaineDOT) suggested five possible routes to extend I-395 to SR 9, with two in particular designated as "State's Choice" and "Holden's Choice". The state's choice route would cut through the middle of Holden and connect to SR 9 in East Eddington; Holden's choice would run along the Brewer–Holden border and join SR 9 earlier. Since then, the state eliminated the "State's Choice" route and began work on the "Holden's Choice" route, designated 2B-2. All three affected communities issued resolutions in 2014 opposing this route. Planning the extension completed in 2021, and work clearing the route commenced in 2022.

Exit list

References

External links

Kurumi - I-395 Maine
{{3di, 95 95-3 Maine 95-3 3 Maine Bangor, Maine Transportation in Penobscot County, Maine Brewer, Maine