The work to stabilize the waterfront began in November 2003, and after a short delay, crews are out again in the elements using heavy equipment and backhoes to continue the 5,520-linear-foot shoreline protection project.

The original shorefront supports were installed more than 100 years ago and have not been maintained since construction, allowing for the riverbank to slowly erode into the southward-flowing Penobscot River.

The city attained $3.4 million in funds to stabilize the shoreline between 2001 and 2004 from the Maine Department of Transportation, the U.S.

Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on the project. The city also chipped in $200,000 in matching funds to attain the state funds, D’arcy Main-Boyington, Brewer economic development director, said Friday. "It’s all old money," she said.

When the funds first came in, there was enough to fund the entire project, which is part of the Penobscot Landing undertaking that stretches from just north of the Penobscot Bridge to the Veterans Remembrance Bridge, but city officials struggled to attain easements to fix the waterfront in some areas, Main-Boyington said. With construction prices increasing and the erosion continuing, the decision was made to go forward with the easements in hand, she said.

"We tried to choose areas with the most need," Main-Boyington said. "We did the best we could with what we had.

"The cost to do this went through the roof in the last two years," she said.

This first phase of the stabilization, a 600-linear-foot area in front of the Muddy Rudder restaurant and the old Bangor Box Factory on South Main Street, was completed in 2003.

In the fall, work continued on the area just south of the Muddy Rudder, and recently work began on the area between the Chamberlain Bridge and the Penobscot Bridge.

Crews from Vaughn Thibodeau & Sons of Bangor are constructing "a combination of vertical bulkhead and riprap" in the area between Getchell Bros. Inc. and the river, Tanya Pereira, Brewer economic development specialist, said.

Riprap to reinforce the shoreline is created by using a trench, dug between the low- and high-tide marks, and filled with 2,000- to 3,000-pound stones with smaller stones on top.

As part of the project, crews also are leveling off the area nearest to the water, which many residents think is part of a planned waterfront walking trail.

"They think that’s what we’re building," Pereira said.

While the trail is not under way, the stabilization project is key to attaining the funds to build it, both city officials said.

"We have to have the stabilization well under way before we can apply,"

Main-Boyington said. "The very next time that [federal funding] comes around, we’ll apply."

The long-term plans for the Penobscot Landing include the riverside walkway, a public pier, a marina, and the already completed children’s garden, which is located behind Dead River’s property.

A copyright story from the Bangor Daily News, Saturday, February 2, 2008.