Sec. Buttigieg talks with Mainers about reimagining rural transportation
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg visited Portland's East Deering neighborhood on Aug. 7, 2024 to talk about a $25 million federal grant the Maine Department of Transportation will use to improve vehicle and pedestrian infrastructure in the area. He appeared alongside Portland Mayor Mark Dion, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and Maine Gov. Janet Mills. (AnnMarie Hilton/Maine Morning Star)
Against a backdrop of Interstate 295 and the former B&M Beans factory, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said you don’t have to be in a big city to have nice things.
Buttigieg capped off a 50-state tour with a trip to Maine on Tuesday and Wednesday to learn about transportation-related challenges in the sprawling rural state and highlight the federal investments in regional infrastructure improvement projects.
This was Buttigieg’s first visit to Maine as transportation secretary and included stops in Freeport and Portland — during which he also made time for a run around Portland’s Back Cove and enjoyed local cuisine so good that the secretary remarked he should come more often. His visit was the last stop on a nationwide tour promoting the projects made possible under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by the Biden administration in 2021.
In total, Maine has received $2.5 billion through the law for more than 300 projects, with $1.5 billion for transportation, $368.3 billion for high-speed internet and $265.3 billion for clean water.
Buttigieg, who had been considered a potential running mate for Kamala Harris, arrived in Maine the same day the Democratic nominee announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would be joining her on the presidential ticket.
Learning about Maine’s infrastructure challenges
Beginning in Freeport on Tuesday, Buttigieg toured two replacement bridge construction projects being paid for in part by the infrastructure law. The bridges, which were built in the 1960s to cross I-295, were deteriorating and no longer met capacity needs. Some of Maine’s federal officials also joined the secretary, including independent U.S. Sen. Angus King and Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.
At Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport, Buttigieg participated in a panel discussion with tribal leaders, business owners and representatives from nonprofits on transportation obstacles they’ve faced.
He sympathized with connectivity and infrastructure issues rural communities face, and highlighted the $11 billion in federal grants to modernize rural transportation his department has awarded in the past two years.
“Let me start by acknowledging that rural communities have, I think, often felt a lack of regard from Washington, an under-resourcing that has built up over time,” Buttigieg said. “Which is part of why we want to make sure that this administration, this Biden-Harris administration … they want to be invested in rural America.”
“And I know those promises have come for a long time, so it’s important for us to demonstrate that we’re putting our money where our mouth is,” he continued, adding that “a big part of that is transportation infrastructure.”
Panel and audience members told the transportation secretary about their concerns balancing sustainability and cost-effectiveness. They highlighted solutions they’ve developed with help from federal grants and other sources of funding.
Panelist Clarissa Sabattis, chief of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, highlighted a federal grant that allowed the tribe, in partnership with local towns, to rebuild a section of Foxcroft Road last year.
“Our citizens were getting hit by vehicles when they were walking on the road,” she said. “And then fast forward a couple years, and we were able to leverage a grant for about $15 million. So now, our citizens are excited. They’re going to have sidewalks that they can walk to town, they can exercise, they can access work, they can access all of these services.”
The panelists and audience members also discussed the importance of accounting for climate change when planning for new infrastructure projects. Particularly in Maine, budgeting for the impacts of climate change and the flooding and destruction it can bring is crucial, Pingree said.
There is dedicated money in the infrastructure bill to increase the resilience of existing transportation systems and address the impacts of climate change, Buttigieg said. He also added that creating jobs through improvements to infrastructure shows that job creation and sustainability can be achieved simultaneously.
“I’m especially enthused about how the progress in rural America — we’re standing at a place that symbolizes it — has broken down the old false framework of jobs versus the environment, as if doing right on one account could only mean doing harm on the other,” he said in his speech at the Wolfe’s Neck Center.
Modernizing and revitalizing Portland
For the first time in more than a century, Portland’s East Deering neighborhood will have public access to the waterfront through a new pier that will be constructed using federal grant dollars.
In the final stop on his two-day Maine tour, Buttigieg and Maine Gov. Janet Mills visited the neighborhood, which will soon be transformed into a hub for innovation and economic growth thanks to a $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant.
The Maine Department of Transportation will use the grant in East Deering to improve vehicle and pedestrian infrastructure in the neighborhood — including changes to the I-295 off-ramp to Washington Avenue that residents have voiced concern about. The modifications will provide better access to the new home of the Roux Institute at Northeastern University, which is expected to open in 2027 at the former B&M Beans factory.
Like many Maine people, Mills said she was sad when the factory closed in 2021, but she’s excited about the future with the Roux Institute in its place. She said the grant will help reconnect East Deering to the rest of Portland and make it easier for people to get between the two by car, bike and potentially even boat.
Rather than baked beans and brown bread, Pingree said the former factory space will produce opportunities. She gave the example of a project Roux was working on, with support from her office, that made plastic from kelp.
At the event in East Deering, Buttigieg said that the revitalization project combines three of his favorite things: academic research being used to create opportunity, adaptive reuse of historic structures and great transportation policy.
“What we see here is a community that found its superpower in adaptive reuse and quality of place,” Buttigieg said, adding that it will create jobs and a future that will encourage people to build their lives in East Deering.
Earlier Wednesday, Buttigieg joined Mills and other Maine leaders to tour the Portland International Marine Terminal. The Maine Port Authority received another $14.2 million grant from the infrastructure law to modernize that facility and increase efficiency to keep pace with growing cargo demands.
