MDOT supports Searsport harbor dredging
Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt told a nonprofit economic development group on Wednesday that dredging Searsport’s harbor is essential to Maine’s capturing a greater share of the growing trade potential along the East Coast.
Speaking at a meeting of the Action Committee of 50 in Bangor, Bernhardt pointed out that commercial cargo vessels are larger and have deeper drafts than the 35-foot channel created 50 years ago during Searsport’s last major harbor dredging, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Without the dredging, large ships seeking to dock in Searsport must wait for high tide or come with a lighter load so they don’t sit as low in the water. That increases transportation costs for companies shipping through Maine.The newspaper reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is planning the project, estimated that 929,000 cubic yards would be removed during the proposed $12 million dredging project, which would increase the depth of the channel by 5 feet and expand the dimensions of Maine’s second-busiest commercial shipping channel.
Bernhardt said the harbor dredging, which goes before the Civil Works Review Board this summer, would be beneficial to efforts to increase commercial rail traffic on the line that connects Searsport with Millinocket, where Cate Street Capital’s Thermogen Industries plans to build a $70 million torrefied wood plant. Thermogen officials have identified Searsport, along with Eastport, as essential deep-water ports for shipping the company’s bio-coal products to Europe.
Bernhardt told the BDN that the state is closely watching the Maine, Montreal and Atlantic Railway’s bankruptcy sale to Fortress Investment Group, which bid almost $15.9 million through a subsidiary for the assets of the bankrupt railroad, which include the rail line to Searsport.
Last November, lobstermen voiced concern about the potential impact dumping the dredged sediment at a site off Islesboro or Rockland might have on the movement of lobsters.
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