Biddeford seeks bids for RiverWalk construction

Another phase of the Biddeford RiverWalk is in the offing as bids are being submitted at the city’s request for a number of improvements to the Saco Falls and Riverdam boardwalks, adjacent to the east end of Pearl Street.

The bid opening has been extended from December 23 to January 6, 2025 according to Danica Lamontagne, Assistant to the City Manager. An award of the contract for the project is typically considered and acted on by the City Council, which may occur during its January 21 meeting.

According to the request for bids that appeared in local media on Dec. 5, the project will not only include several features of the to-be-completed section of the river walk, but also will address deterioration of the stone river wall in that location.

“There is existing damage to the river wall at the location of this project,” said Lamontagne. “So this is an opportunity to tackle both the stabilization of those locations as well as the installation of the RiverWalk.”

Other items that the city seeks to be addressed include:

•  Development of an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant switchback ramp and wheelchair lift

•  Installation of wooden and concrete boardwalk sections

•  Installation of a steel and a cast in place concrete staircase

•  Development of a concrete sidewalk

•  Pavement markings for crosswalks

•  Safety railings and fencing for each of these features

•  Repair of the existing retaining wall to include the removal and resetting of existing granite blocks, and the creation of a cofferdam as necessary

•  All necessary erosion control, excavation and final grading of the site

The location of the smokestack, the most obvious remaining feature of the Maine Energy Recovery Company that operated on the site until 2012, is shown on the plan. The stack is not scheduled for removal at this time, said Lamontagne.

Another very visible feature of the former MERC site, the city’s new parking garage, figures prominently in the riverwalk project, according to Lamontagne.

“The City’s 2019 Joint Development Agreement with Treadwell Franklin Infrastructure Capital and James W. Sewall Company for the construction of Biddeford’s downtown parking garage included $3 million to support this expansion of the RiverWalk” she said. 

Lamontagne went on to explain that no residential property tax dollars were used to fund the parking garage or the RiverWalk project.

“(Treadwell Frankin and James W. Sewall) provided the up-front financing to build and operate the parking garage,” she said. “The city makes pre-determined annual payments to Biddeford RiverWalk Community 1 over a 25-year lease period. These payments are made from the Mill District TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund” and also from “…revenues that are received from users who park in the garage and municipal surface parking lots.”

The developers of projects upstream from the Pearl Street site -- the now complete project known as The Levee, and neighboring buildings at 10, 20 and 30 Upper Falls Road that are under construction -- will be responsible for a significant extension of the river walk in the near future, according to David Galbraith, City Planner and Deputy Director of Planning and Development.

“This project included approximately 350-400 linear feet of new Riverwalk paths along the Saco River, but more importantly this project includes an additional 600 feet which now connects this project to the old MERC site via a pedestrian walkway under the railroad bed,” said Galbraith in an email.

Similarly, if and when the Diamond Riverside mixed-use project moves forward on the north side of Elm Street, several hundred more feet of the river walk are likely to be built.

Bob Hamblen can be reached at rhh0918@gmail.com