BIDDEFORD — Imagine strolling along the Saco River with a bird’s eye view of the river’s magnificent rolling falls, the historic mill district in the background. Once you’re tired of walking, take a seat along the trail and enjoy the river vistas while chatting with a friend.
This description of a Biddeford RiverWalk has been a dream that city boosters have been talking about for more than three years. Soon, that dream will become a reality.
On July 19, the City Council approved authorizing City Manager John Bubier to sign a $550,000 contract with Maietta Enterprises, Inc. of Scarborough to begin construction of Phase I of the RiverWalk. Construction will begin any day now.
“I never doubted it would begin,” said Biddeford RiverWalk Coalition Director Alix Hopkins, “but you can only talk about things for so long. Once the construction starts, people will start to get really excited.”
The majority of money for the project, $463,000, comes from the state through the Riverfront Community Development Bond. The additional $87,000 is from the Route 111-Mill Redevelopment TIF district fund, which is made up of property tax revenue from some new investment in the city that is being directed to specific projects rather than into the city’s general fund.
Phase I of the RiverWalk includes work on both sides of Main Street near the entrance to the North Dam Mill, said City Planner Greg Tansley.
The majority of the funds will be used to repair the river wall near the west side of Main Street and close to the North Dam Mill entrance, said Tansley. This wall was damaged by past storms and has been in disrepair for several years.
But the centerpiece, said Hopkins, will be construction of the Gateway Plaza RiverWalk entrance, also on the west side of Main Street.
The plaza will require visitors to go down a ramp and provide an overlook of the river. It will include a salvaged, weathered granite block seatwall and landscaping.
The portion of the RiverWalk to be completed on the west side of Main Street is approximately 150 feet long. The RiverWalk will be constructed of concrete.
A crosswalk will be installed connecting the mill district portion of the RiverWalk to Mechanics Park. The contractors will build a new entrance to Mechanics Park as well as place boulder steps in the park that can be used to travel from the higher to lower level of the park.
The hope is that the RiverWalk will eventually run the length of Biddeford’s Mill District, said Hopkins.
Designs for the entire project were completed by the engineering firm Wright Pierce in Portland and the landscape architecture firm Richardson & Associates in Saco; both companies did an “absolutely exemplary job,” she said.
Part of the strategy of building the gateway plaza first, in such a visible location, is that it will “give people a sense of what they’ll be able to see and do,” said Hopkins. Also, she said, it could help attract more grant money to complete additional phases of the pathway.
Phase I of the RiverWalk is expected to be completed in October.
Even as construction of the first portion gets underway, plans for the next section have already begun. Tansley said he is drafting a request for proposals for the design of a bridge over the steam pipe that connects the mill districts of Biddeford and Saco.
Biddeford and Saco together received $265,000 from the Department of Transportation’s Quality Communities Program to pay for engineering and preparation of construction bid documents. An additional local match of $66,000 is being utilized for this project.
Tansley is confident that once the designs are completed, the state will fund construction of the project.
In addition to the bridge, the city will construct an additional portion of the RiverWalk that will connect the end of the bridge to Phase I.
Tansley said the bridge would be constructed this fall or in the spring.
More information about the Biddeford RiverWalk can be found on both the Heart of Biddeford website at http://biddefordriverwalk.org and the city of Biddeford’s website at www.biddefordmaine.org.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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