PORTLAND, Maine (AP) The Maine Turnpike Authority projects that traffic volume this holiday weekend will return to close to pre-pandemic levels.

More than 1 million vehicles are anticipated to travel the Maine Turnpike from Friday through Monday, which is Labor Day. That projection is about 3% below the all-time record set in 2019, before the pandemic.

MTA expects overall traffic volume to be up this year compared to 2020, which was heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Year-to-date traffic through August is up 22% compared to the same period in 2020. All told, MTA has recorded over 55.3 million transactions through August, compared to 56.5 million in the same period in 2019.