WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) today applauded an announcement that the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) will receive a $7,719,173 federal grant to support infrastructure improvements and equipment and technology investments at the Port of Portland. Senator King and the other members of the Maine delegation wrote a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx in support of the project in April.

“The Port of Portland is a critical transportation hub that bolsters international trade and creates economic opportunity for Maine, and this welcome funding will help build on that positive impact,” said Senator King. “This is an exciting time for the port and for all of Maine as we continue to build on trade opportunities and expand transportation infrastructure. We’ve already seen rail improvements at the port, and the upgrades that will result from this project will expand on those efforts so that the benefits can ripple across the state.” 

This Maine DOT project, the Maine Intermodal Port Productivity Project (MIPPP), aims to address capacity and infrastructure needs at the Port of Portland in order to build on previous rail upgrades at the port and help relieve highway congestion between Portland and ports in Canada. The improvements that will be made possible by this grant include: the removal of the existing maintenance facility and rehabilitation of the wharf, the installation of a new mobile harbor crane and other cargo handling equipment, the construction of a highway and rail crossing upgrade, and the construction of a new operations and maintenance center.

Currently, cargo is offloaded at Canadian ports and transported to the United States via truck.  By addressing the capacity and infrastructure needs at the Port of Portland, the project will improve freight mobility and relieve highway congestion between Portland and Canadian Ports.  Capacity and state of good repair improvements for the railroads at the port and the rail line serving the port allow for expansion of intermodal service by rail.

The federal funding for the MIPPP comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s new Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects program, which is also referred to the FASTLANE grant program. This grant program was created in December 2015 when Congress passed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, or FAST Act.   The grant is expected to cover about half of the $15,438,347 total project cost, with the remainder of the funding being matched by non-federal sponsors.

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