International Marine Terminal to expand
State officials plan to expand Portland’s shipping-container terminal, doubling its size and providing a direct link to a Pan Am rail line, which stands to lower shipping costs for commercial customers.
The Portland Press Herald reported the expansion of the International Marine Terminal would give the port where Icelandic shipping company Eimskip now operates direct rail access for the first time in 50 years. Larus Isfeld, managing director of Eimskip USA, told the newspaper that the company views rail access as a necessity for long-term growth.
The newspaper reported the plan would involve the Maine Port Authority using eminent domain to take several acres of private land from its current owner, Phineas Sprague Jr. Sprague told the newspaper that the process is not confrontational because he agrees the project is important to the port’s economic viability, but he contests the value the state offered him for the land. He plans to challenge that value through the eminent domain process but declined to say what value he has placed on the land.
Sprague, who planned to use the 22 acres for a boat yard, said he will use profits from the sale to buy additional land from Pan Am Railways to accommodate the boat yard west of the Casco Bay Bridge. The newspaper reported the state plans to complete the project later this year, using a portion of a $24 million bond approved in November for “multi-modal projects” at the port.
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Shaw Brothers lowest bidder for marine terminal expansion project
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