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BREWER, Maine Municipal leaders will consider a resolve Tuesday that will withdraw the citys support for building a proposed Interstate 395-Route 9 connector road that has been in the planning stages for more than a dozen years.

Its pretty darn clear that city councilors are upset with the Maine Department of Transportation, City Manager Steve Bost said Monday.

City Council members are frustrated with the DOTs recent actions mainly the departments recent change of its preferred route from one selected in 2003 without first consulting city or area town leaders.

In an unusual move all five councilors have put their names on a resolve withdrawing support for building the limited-access highway.

While city leaders support improving the transportation corridor between the Canadian Maritime Provinces and the federal highway system, The City of Brewer and other stakeholders have been excluded from the public process as well as the decision-making process used by the DOT, the proposed council resolve states.

State transportation officials have been studying a Brewer-Holden-Eddington connector since before 2000. Brewer and Eddington leaders learned in January that the DOT had selected a new preferred I-395-Route 9 connector route.

A draft Environmental Impact Study and Clean Water Act Section 404 Permit Application which include more than 300 pages of information have been completed on the new preferred route and two others that are similar, and the state and federal governments are now taking public comment, the states I-395-Route 9 connector website states.

Maine transportation officials recently eliminated the proposed route they selected in 2003 which was supported by Brewer councilors and would have cut through the mostly unpopulated center of Holden and have now selected the 2B2 option.

The new preferred route would extend I-395 at its Wilson Street junction and would roughly follow the Holden-Brewer line until entering Eddington and connecting with 4.5 miles of rebuilt Route 9.

The DOT and the Federal Highway Administration also are officially considering two other alternatives 5A2B2 and 5B2B2 which are similar to 2B2.

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Brewer councilors line up against DOT’s preferred I-395-Route 9 connector