60NANB23D148

Purpose/Scope: The project will consist of the construction of a pier from the shore adjacent to UNE's Girard Marine Science Center into the Saco River, to provide year-round, all tide access for small and shallow draft vessels, with tidally restricted access for larger vessels. The pier will be constructed with concrete filled steel pipe pilings, cast in place concrete pile caps, and precast concrete deck planks. The current design, 30% complete, has the approach pier at approximately 14' x 120' and the main pier at 28' x 100'. An access road, of approximately 500', from the Girard Marine Science Center parking lot, will be constructed to provide access to the pier.

Activities to be performed: Despite its prime location with direct access to the ocean, UNE currently has floating docks that are removed seasonally, precluding access to Ram Island and other areas of the Gulf of Maine in the critical winter and spring months. Construction of a permanent pier at UNE's Girard Marine Science Center will allow for dynamic, year-round, ocean-going research activities, facilitating scientific and practical exchanges with local, regional, and national marine researchers and industry partners. Additionally, the deep-water access would expand UNE's ability to serve as a collaboration hub for coastal marine and deep-water science and industry.

Expected outcomes: The jewel of UNE's marine programs is Ram Island, UNE's private one-acre living laboratory two miles from campus in Saco Bay, which was gifted to the university in 2014. The island, which houses a fieldwork station and an experimental kelp farm, provides unparalleled research and field study opportunities for students and faculty. It also creates the potential to develop research partnerships that focus on critical issues facing Maine, making Ram Island home to coastal zone investigations of climate change, marine geology, invasive species, marine mammal ecology, and interactions with fisheries and marine aquaculture.

Intended beneficiaries: The construction of a permanent pier at UNE's Girard Marine Science Center will allow for dynamic, year-round, ocean-going research activities, facilitating scientific and practical exchanges with local, regional, and national marine researchers and industry partners. Additionally, the deep-water access would expand UNE's ability to serve as a collaboration hub for coastal marine and deep-water science and industry.

Subrecipient activities: None.

University Of New England

11.617 - Congressionally-Identified Projects

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [DOC]

Biddeford, Maine 04005-9526 United States

Single Zip Code

None