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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2018
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Increase in Memorial Day Weekend Traffic Expected on Turnpike
Road Trip Games Guide available to weekend travelers
PORTLAND, Maine - Maine's unofficial start to summer begins this Holiday weekend and with it brings increased traffic along the Maine Turnpike. The MTA expects traffic to be up 1.6 percent over last year's Memorial Day weekend. Approximately 978,000 vehicles are predicted to travel the turnpike over the four-day period of Friday through Monday. The heaviest traffic northbound is expected to occur on Friday between the hours of 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM. The heaviest southbound traffic is expected on Monday, especially at the New Hampshire border at the Piscataqua River Bridge, where tens of thousands of vehicles will depart the state in the afternoon hours.
Motorists traveling the Turnpike over the Holiday weekend can also pick up their copy of Maine Public's "Guide to Road Trip Games" booklet. The guide is filled with fun games to play in the car as well as safe driving tips provided by its sponsors, Maine Bureau of Highway Safety, Maine Turnpike Authority and Maine Public. The guides will be distributed at each of the Turnpike's mainline toll plazas in York, New Gloucester, West Gardiner and Gardiner and will also be available in all five of its Service Plazas.
This Memorial Day, the MTA salutes the 6,995 Maine veterans who gave their lives in defense of our country, and the families they left behind. The Maine Turnpike was designated the Gold Star Memorial Highway in 1965 to commemorate the valor and sacrifice of those who died in service to our country. The Gold Star was worn by American mothers instead of conventional mourning clothes during World War I. The display of gold star banners in homes began in World War II and it is a tradition that has been carried through every war thereafter.
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