Sunny plan for Calais intermodel center

Have you ever made rock candy? A tiny seed crystal or a string or stick is added to a water solution saturated with sugar. Before the crystal is added, the sugar solution will sit, perhaps for years, with not a sign of any more organization than your average glass full of water. Adding the tiny seed crystal allows the sugar molecules to organize forming a set of crystals as beautiful as a jewel.

I believe building the Calais international bridge near the Calais Industrial Park is the seed that should be used to form a beautiful economic crystal in Calais.

The saturated solution in Calais has been sitting and waiting to crystallize for years. For years Calais has been asking for an intermodal facility that would join rail service and truck transportation at their industrial park. For years the Maine Department of Transportation and the Down East region have supported the idea that rail service is needed in the Eastport area if the port is to be a success. For years there has been discussion of the fact that it would be extremely difficult and hugely expensive to actually run a railroad directly into the city of Eastport. For years there has been discussion of providing rail access for Eastport by putting a truck-train intermodal facility at Ayers Junction, an impractical location which is far from any functioning railroad, any international bridge, any existing good road, and any town center.

For years Georgia-Pacific, one of the major companies that might use the Eastport port, has pointed out that it would not make economic sense to ship things by rail for 15 miles to Ayers Junction and then transfer the load to trucks for the final leg into Eastport. An intermodal facility at Ayers Junction just would not make sense in their transportation plan. For years the Route 1 Corridor Committee has been begging for road improvements to support Down East transportation in general and commercial transportation in particular. For years Gov. Angus King, Rep. John Baldacci and state legislators have talked of their commitment to infusing funds into Washington County to improve its ailing economy over the long-term.

Does this begin to sound like a saturated solution that is ready to crystallize?

Consider one more ingredient in this mixture. For more than 10 years the Sunrise Trail Coalition has been advocating that a multi-use, four-season, recreation-transportation trail should be built on the bed of the unused Calais railroad line from Ellsworth to Calais. We have asked that the MDOT implement its 1991 plan to remove the outdated tracks from the old, unused Calais Branch Railroad from Ellsworth to Calais so the trail could be constructed economically and use the existing bridges.

The necessary railroad access to Eastport would be accomplished in the most cost-effective way by accessing an intermodal facility at Calais on the existing railroad from the north. The priceless transportation right of way along the Calais Branch can be banked for future railroad use if needed.

Meanwhile the Calais Branch right of way can be put to immediate economic-development use for all the towns anywhere near the trail. This not only would stimulate the economy in the here and now, but it also would help the MDOT to maintain the Calais Branch right of way through use, rather than spending large sums of money to keep it in its unused state.

In June, Calais received international attention when it was designated the Northern Gateway to the East Coast Greenway. This greenway is a 2,600-mile multi-use trail that will stretch from Calais to Key West, Fla., connecting all the major East Coast cities with Calais. The MDOT has just completed a feasibility study showing the large positive financial impact that bicycle tourists have in Maine and other states. Long-distance, off-road trails are what bicycle tourists travel hundreds of miles to use. We all have seen this ourselves at Acadia National Park. The biggest group of trail-users, represented by the Maine Snowmobile Association, has documented their huge financial impact in a recent study completed by researchers at the University of Maine.

So let me echo the requests of the people, the small-business owners and the government officials of Calais, as well as Deborah Feck, the general manager of Domtar, the new owner of the former Georgia-Pacific mill. Build the International Bridge near the Calais Industrial Park. Pay for the six miles of improvements to Route 1 required by the Industrial Park bridge location. Help to upgrade the present working railroad into the Calais Industrial Park. Build the Downeast Sunrise Trail. Make Calais a true intermodal center.

Something sweet could be cooking in Calais. Locating the new bridge near the Calais Industrial Park can be just the seed crystal needed to make Calais into an economic jewel for Washington County.

Sally C. Jacobs of Orono is chair of the Sunrise Trail Coalition.