Cianbro’s chief bullish on Maine Portland project to employ 800

PITTSFIELD – It was easy for Cianbro Corp. President Peter Vigue to bring the largest contract in the company’s history back home to Maine this week.

Cianbro is the largest civil and heavy industrial construction company on the East Coast, with gross annual sales in excess of $360 million. The company has offices in Portland, Connecticut and Maryland. But its corporate headquarters is in the small town of Pittsfield, population 4,500.

“I have people tell me all the time that we should be headquartered in Washington, D.C., or somewhere where the action is,” Vigue said Wednesday at his small, windowless Pittsfield office. “But where else can we make the kind of impact that we can make here?

“It is vital that we give back,” he said, “and make our communities a better place to be.

“We are bullish on the future of this state,” Vigue said. “Our company’s challenge is the same as other companies in Maine. How can we develop creative and innovative approaches to utilize our skills and talents while creating jobs and growing Maine’s economy?”

With the planned arrival of two offshore well drilling rigs in Portland’s harbor this spring, Vigue has found the answer to that question. The project is expected to require 800 skilled workers, 300 of which will be newly hired, and will pump $1 million a year for the next two years into Portland’s coffers.

“This is great news, not just for Portland,” said Vigue, “in light of the fact that at least half of the work force will come from central Maine.

“Hopefully this encourages the people of this state to recognize we have a lot to offer this global economy,” Vigue said. “We simply cannot wait for these offers to come here. We need to seek them out and bring them to Maine. We can compete with the rest of the world.”

Vigue said that the company was able to bring the waterfront project opportunity back to Maine because “our number one valuable asset is the people of this state. Number two is an underutilized facility.”

Traditional Maine teamwork is the key, said Vigue, who credited a partnership with the Maine Department of Transportation, the Maine Department of Economic Development, the city of Portland, Maine’s U.S. senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as the reason Cianbro was able to swing the deal.

“Their skills, their hard work and their can-do spirit allows us to make these significant commitments. When private industry and government work together, we can be successful,” said Vigue. “Everyone wins: the company, the workers, the government, the entire state of Maine. Everyone wins because the economy is stronger.”

The drilling rigs will arrive from the Gulf of Mexico at Portland’s waterfront in two pieces: the topside will be brought by barge and the pontoons will be towed. They will be “mated” or joined and then pipefitters, equipment operators, welders, electricians and riggers will go to work outfitting the rigs.

Once completed, the rigs will be towed to either Trinidad or Brazil.

Although Vigue said he could not yet divulge the name of the company they will be working for, he said there was never a question that the work would be done in Maine.

“We are making a significant investment in the growth and development of our own people,” said Vigue. The project is expected to have enormous impacts on the Portland airport, housing markets, restaurants and transportation. Vigue said it has always been Cianbro’s policy to emphasize the use of Maine companies.

“We will be utilizing Maine material suppliers, and overall, from a tax perspective, both the city and the state will benefit from this,” he said.

The Portland City Council must approve the pier lease agreement. However, training for current Cianbro employees has already begun.

Portland city officials are optimistic about the project, which will bring in much-needed revenue at a time when Portland’s waterfront needed a boost. The deep-water dock that Cianbro will rent, owned by the city of Portland, had been developed since 1982 for Bath Iron Works. With the final payment this year on a 20-year bond, the city’s investment in the facility will be more than $700,000.

At the end of Cianbro’s tenure, the dock will be part of a plan being developed by the city to create a terminal that would serve visiting cruise ships. The new terminal will cost about $15 million and encompass the current Pier 2, which Cianbro intends to lease, and the Maine Sate Pier.

Vigue said Cianbro owns its own pier facility in Portland, Ricker’s Wharf at the end of Commercial Street. He said the wharf is for shallow-water access but if the company continues to need deep-water access, “there are potentially some more sites in Portland, Searsport and Eastport.”

In the Gulf of Mexico, said Vigue, there are 90 offshore drilling rigs and 70 percent are more than 30 years old. “They will need retrofitting or replacement,” he said. It is Cianbro’s goal to take advantage of that opportunity, said Vigue, “and bring that work back here to Maine.”