There’s a New Completion Date for Portland, Maine’s Big Dig

If you think the project around Back Cove in Portland, Maine, has been going on for a while, you're right. But it IS almost done.

According to the Press Herald, Portland has been working on this stormwater retention project since 2019. However, it hasn't exactly gone as planned, with more than a two-year delay, 10 changes to the contract, and $1 million over budget.

So when is this huge Portland, Maine project supposed to be done?

It actually will be done November, 2024. But it won't look like it. That's because most of the work has been done underground. So while it looks like nothing is happening, it is - just out of sight. They will wait until the spring to put grass and landscaping back where the old soccer field sat. The biggest delay issue was when they ran into super soft clay that made the working conditions unsafe.

Who's paying for this massive Portland, Maine project that is $1 million over budget?

Portlanders are paying for this with the wastewater fees residents and businesses pay based on how much water they use. The Senior Project Engineer (in 2020), Brad Roland, told WGME that it's the biggest combined sewer overflow project Portland has ever done. Everything you see above ground will be buried, and a new soccer field will be rebuilt about two feet higher than before. The project was supposed to be completed in 2022.

Is this Back Cove project Maine's 'Big Dig'?

Not even close. According to Wikipedia, the Big Dig was a mega-project in Boston that rerouted the then-elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel, then built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport. It started in 1991 and was finally done in 2007. It was the most expensive highway project in the US and was a mess from the beginning.  There were cost overruns, delays, leaks, design flaws, accusations of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal charges and arrests, and the death of one motorist.

They originally said it would be done in 1998 for around $2.8 billion. But in the end, it took until 2007, and cost over $8 billion. So as long and annoying as this project has been, compared to Boston's Bid Dig, this is on time and under budget!