Portland Harbor Dredge Application Not Selected for Federal Funding

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Bill Needleman, Portland Waterfront Coordinator. Previously, he Was in the City’s Planning Department.  

An application for funding for dredge work at and around the piers, wharfs and marinas in Portland Harbor was not funded by the US Department of Transportation it was recently announced by the city of Portland.  The partners in this application learned of the news on Friday, November 19, 2021.  The $31 million project sought $24 milion from the RAISE GRANT program was sought to address decades of accumulated sediment clogging many of the historic working piers of Portland’s waterfront as well as virtually all of the marinas in South Portland and Portland.  The remaining $7 million would have come from state and local coffers as well as from the impacted businesses.

“This is not the answer we were hoping for,” said Bill Needleman, Portland’s Waterfront Coordinator.  “We have our permits in place, we made the economic case, we built an unparalled partnershi and there is zero opposition.  The project is needed and ready to go.  There is a lot of federal money coming down the pike,  We will continue to work with our patners locally and in Washington in order to obtain some of those monies in a sustained effort to prioritize the need and benefits of preserving our great working waterfront.”

A coalition of the city of Portland, the city of South Portland, the Portland Harbor Commsion and the Maine Departmet of Transportation will be extended at least another year while it seeks to find project funding.