PORTLAND – Portland officials who have been pressing forward with plans for a cruise ship terminal are reconsidering the strategy now that a construction company is negotiating a short-term project that will create 800 jobs.

Jeffrey Monroe, the city’s transportation director, said it might be a mistake for Portland to turn the former Bath Iron Works dry dock site solely into a passenger ship terminal.

Focusing only on cruise ships and ferries could leave the city without space to accommodate marine construction, such as the pending work by Cianbro Corp., Monroe said.

The Cianbro job, to finish two large oil rigs, which is under negotiation, is expected to employ 800 people and bring Portland $2 million in payments over two years. “We started to ask ourselves, ‘How many other Cianbros are out there?'” he said.

Monroe said he has been discussing that question with city officials and neighborhood leaders since Cianbro’s surprise announcement last week.

If other policymakers share Monroe’s concerns, it could lead to the city stepping back from initial plans to transform the old industrial piers at the east end of the waterfront into a modern passenger ship terminal.

While Monroe stressed that passenger ships still should be part of any redevelopment of the 16-acre site, the Cianbro project is making him realize the existing industrial resources may be too valuable to lose.

“Are there other big-ticket, deep-water opportunities?” Monroe said. “If we maintain the infrastructure, we stay in the business.”

Monroe’s comments were welcomed by William Gorham, president of the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization.

Gorham wants to retain traditional waterfront uses. He thinks they will bring more jobs and less traffic to the area over time than would cruise ships and accompanying retail development. The city is on the right track to look for other marine-related possibilities, he added.

“It would sustain an industry that has been in this neighborhood 150 years,” he said.