Eastport rededicates $15 million breakwater
Photo / Leslie Bowman
Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority.
The City of Eastport’s rebuilt $15 million breakwater is open for business, providing deep-water berthing for cruise ships, cargo vessels, fishing boats, yachts and U.S. Navy and Coast Guard boats.
The breakwater replaces the original breakwater that collapsed Dec. 4, 2014. It was rededicated in a Fourth of July ceremony attended by three-quarters of the state's congressional delegation, as well as officials from the Navy, Coast Guard, Border Patrol and state, county and local governments.
Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority, said that, while the community did not have "a breakwater collapse manual,” it "now could write one,” the Quoddy Tides reported.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, who helped to secure a $6 million federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant for the breakwater, said the pier is essential for commercial and recreational fishing, cruise ships and national security. She also noted that it serves as a base for the Coast Guard and border protection services and “lays the foundation” for the Estes Head cargo terminal, which accommodates ships up to 900 feet long.
As early as 2010, Gardner and other officials had started a campaign to rebuild the breakwater, which was 55 years old. In 2012, damage on the north side of the breakwater highlighted the need for substantial work.
"We recognized we were on borrowed time," Gardner told the Bangor Daily News in 2015.
In 2013, Gardner applied to the U.S. Department of Transportation's maritime administration for funding to rebuild the breakwater. The effort secured $15 million in state and federal funds and engineering work progressed in 2014. After the collapse, Gardner told the BDN: "If we had started this the morning of the collapse, we'd be four years from getting the money together."
The natural port is deep enough for the largest container ships. Even in the depths of a Maine winter, the port itself remains active because the 25-foot tides keep water from standing too long to freeze.
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