|
Cianbro module facility site plan approved
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Planning Board unanimously approved site plans on Monday for
Cianbro’s new module manufacturing facility at the defunct Eastern Fine
Paper Co. mill site that is expected to create 500 or more well-paying
jobs.
The panel’s approval is a huge step in the massive
multimillion-dollar undertaking to change the 100-plus-year-old
industrial site, which has sat vacant since the mill closed in 2004,
into a working and tax producing facility again.
"We look at it as an opportunity … to put it back into production,"
Tom Ruksznis, facility manager with Cianbro, told the board.
Cianbro Corp., a Pittsfield construction company known around the
state and the nation, first proposed the Brewer Module Facility project
in June.
The site plans include the construction of an approximately
250,000-square foot structural pad and improvements to the site to
produce the modules, and a deep water dock to bring in supplies and ship
out the prefabricated, self-standing building skeletons.
The modules will be built at the 41-acre South Main Street site
beginning early next year and will be moved by barge to industrial
clients elsewhere.
The 500 or so welders, electricians, pipe fitters, millwrights and
other skilled workers will work "80 percent during the day and 20
percent at night," Dan Riley, senior project manager for Sebago
Technics, said.
The site plans include conditions to maintain low noise levels and
downward casting lights, to accommodate abutters, and eight other minor
conditions.
Three project waivers also were approved Monday that allow the
company to forgo a traffic study, since the traffic to the former mill
and Brewer Module Facility are similar in nature; identifying trees that
exceed 10-inches in diameter and another that allows the company to
provide additional screening in the form of shrubbery around the
property.
The modules have piping, electrical and mechanical components
pre-installed and can be as large as five stories high and weigh up to
1,200 tons. The building frameworks are joined together when they arrive
at their destinations.
"On average, there will be six of these modules" on each barge,
Ruksznis said.
Cianbro is in the process of finalizing a 58-module contract with an
unnamed out-of-state company, that is expected to take workers 18 months
to manufacture, he said.
Local residents at the meeting expressed concerns about dredging the
river to accommodate the deep-water dock and water or sewer issues. City
Engineer Frank Higgins said such concerns are unfounded. The amount of
dredging has not yet been determined, he said, adding that the company
is working to avoid endangered salmon and sturgeon populations.
Board members expressed concerns about traffic, flooding, state and
federal permits and the status of the site’s historical significance.
Maine Historic Preservation is requesting that photo documentation is
conducted before the buildings are removed, Riley said.
Cianbro expects to begin demolition in October.
A copyright
article from the Bangor Daily News, Tuesday, August 7, 2007.
|