BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor Waterfront could one day return to its role as a hub of maritime commerce. A transportation and infrastructure plan from the Bangor Area Comprehensive Transportation System calls on the Maine Department of Transportation to conduct a feasibility study into a possible intermodal facility — something of a cargo port — on the Bangor waterfront.
“There could potentially be freight connections by semi-trucks or freight being moved on the water,” Maddie Jensen, a planner for BACTS, said on Tuesday.
The idea of a cargo port is less a stroke of innovation and more a return to tradition.
“Freight being moved on the water could be super historically significant in this region,” Jensen said.
Throughout its history, Bangor’s location has been a major source of wealth. In the 19th century, the city was the largest lumber port in the world, serving as a key connector between timber from the Great North Woods and the global markets. After that industry declined, the Penobscot River still maintained a role in transporting oil and other cargo from the Atlantic Ocean to Central Maine.
But then, things changed.
“It no longer became cost competitive to bring up a barge which could only carry 20- or 25,000 barrels of oil,” David Gelinas, the president of the Penobscot Bay and River Pilot Association, said Tuesday, “When you can bring a much larger ship… 200,000 barrels into Bucksport or Searsport and truck that last distance up.”
Still, Gelinas, who has worked in the shipping industry for more than 30 years, sees merit in re-opening the Penobscot River to large-scale shipping.
“There is ample opportunity to take advantage of transportation afforded by the Penobscot River,” Gelinas said.
But with no feasibility study yet done, the decision of whether to use Maine’s largest river as an industrial thoroughfare remains in the hands of the people of greater Bangor, who are invited to comment on the BACTS latest plan: Vision 2043.