The complete photo voltaic eclipse that crossed Maine on Monday ended at 3:33 p.m. in Greenville, a modest city at the foot of Moosehead Lake. About 30 seconds afterwards, the motor vehicle engines have been heard firing up. Targeted visitors headed out of city was bumper-to-bumper by 3:35, and the honking and swearing adopted shortly immediately after.
A forecast of apparent skies manufactured Maine amongst the ideal viewing places in the place for the rare overall photo voltaic eclipse. The state’s constrained routes into the sweet spot also recommended a website traffic nightmare for eclipse chasers headed residence.
A map released by the Maine Division of Transportation ahead of the eclipse on Monday predicted significant traffic on I-95 from Augusta to Waterville and quite a few stretches of “major” traffic on I-95 and I-295, clearing to “moderate” visitors north of Bangor and on the rural routes into the path of totality.
“Leading up to the eclipse, we noticed a single-hour delays concerning Skowhegan and Jackman,” Maine DOT wrote on Facebook as the eclipse approached. “Western sections of the condition experienced targeted visitors that was between 10 and 20 periods typical stages. Website traffic was 10 to 12 periods normal concentrations north of Bangor.”
But in the several hours after the spectacle, it did not show up that the multilane highway would be a chokepoint.
As of 5:30 p.m., targeted traffic was moving south at a typical rate on I-95 in Bangor and Houlton.
It was the smaller roads, including Route 23 in Sangerville, and Route 7 in Newport — the place cars have been backed up for three miles in the late afternoon — that slowed beneath the extra need of eclipse site visitors with no explanation to stick close to.
BDN writers Troy R. Bennett, Paul Koenig, Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli and Marie Weidmayer contributed reporting.