The town of Scarborough, city of South Portland and the Eastern Trail Alliance cut the ribbon on a new segment of the Eastern Trail that closes a gap and creates a continuous 16-mile off-road trail from South Portland’s Bug Light to downtown Saco.
Spanning 1.6 miles, the latest segment required construction of two bridges, one over the Nonesuch River crossing and a second elevated over the railroad tracks.
Construction started in June 2025 and was completed 15 months ahead of its initial estimate of October 2027.
$7.5M segment
“The new segment connects communities through a beautiful, natural trailway that is safe and accessible for runners, walkers and cyclists alike,” said Eliza Alexander, interim executive director of the Eastern Trail Alliance.
The Eastern Trail Alliance is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1999 to build, maintain and promote the Eastern Trail, a multi-use greenway in southern Maine.
The segment completes trail continuity between Bug Light in South Portland and Thornton Academy in Saco.
The project cost was approximately $7.5 million, funded in part by a $4.1 million campaign launched by the alliance in 2012, with an additional $500,000 provided by the Maine Department of Transportation.
The timeframe for construction was delayed by complications that included getting permission from landowners and the design and construction of a bridge to cross the CSX/Amtrak rail line.
The project engineer was HNTB Corp. in South Portland. Acorn Engineering Inc. in Portland provided construction oversight and inspection services.
Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. in Gorham was the prime contractor with Scott Construction Corp. in Winthrop as the sub-contractor for the bridge work.
65 miles and growing
The segment is part of the 65-mile, still-evolving Eastern Trail that stretches from Kittery north to Bug Light in South Portland and comprises more than 20 miles of protected, off-road trail and over 40 miles of on-road connections.
“The Eastern Trail connects coastal communities, salt marshes, woodlands and historic mill towns, offering a mix of completed off-road segments and on-road connections,” Alexander told Mainebiz.
Construction of the 65-mile corridor has a price tag of $17.6 million so far. The aggregate funds were sourced over the years from distinct federal grant pools, state matches, municipal allocations, private trusts and individual giving.
Completing the remaining off-road concept in its entirety is expected to be between $30 million and $40 million.
“Conservatively, construction costs have averaged about $450,000 per mile so far,” Alexander said.
The latest, 1.6-mile segment took nearly two decades to materialize. Given that time span, it’s difficult to give an expected completion timeline for further construction, Alexander said.
“That said, the Eastern Trail Alliance continues to energetically pursue several trail development projects,” she added.
Old rail corridor
The Eastern Trail is built along the old Eastern Railroad corridor, the first railroad to connect Boston to Portland, operating from 1842 until 1945.
In 1945, train service from Kittery to Portland was suspected. In 1965, the abandoned right-of-way was acquired by a utility company to install a natural gas pipeline, a use that continues today.
In 1991, the idea of a recreation-transportation trail offering public access — particularly to hikers and bikers — coalesced into the formation of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, dedicated to the development of a continuous, traffic-free trail from Florida to Maine.
The idea gained traction from municipalities and organizations in southern Maine, which gained advice and participation of the Maine Department of Transportation, the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission and the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program.
According to a 2021 economic analysis, total annual economic impact of $44.6 million was associated with Eastern Trail use. In 2022, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the nation’s largest trails organization, inducted the Eastern Trail into its Rail-Trail Hall of Fame.
The 65-mile trail is itself part of the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile route connecting Maine to Florida and a project of the East Coast Greenway Alliance.
