Maine’s Coburn Gore Border Port Set for $85M Expansion
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The U.S. General Services Administration has awarded a $15.5 million contract to New York-based Dattner Architects as part of an $85 million project to renovate an aging Maine border crossing with Canada. The modernization will increase capacity for international commercial vehicle traffic.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2026 to update the Coburn Gore land port of entry, built in 1932. The current facility lacks adequate infrastructure for U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to properly inspect commercial vehicles.
GSA plans to expand the existing 15,760-square-foot facility into a modern 35,380-square-foot port with advanced inspection and security technologies.
The expanded Coburn Gore border crossing is needed to handle CBP’s projected increase in truck traffic over the next five years. In fiscal year 2023, the port processed 24,000 vehicles.
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Currently, the port operates as a permit-only commercial port but will become a full commercial port with new housing for CBP officers. The construction plans include preserving the existing main building and two residences built 92 years ago, which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Due to the border crossing’s remote wilderness location, the project is expected to be completed by late 2029, with challenges in labor and material sourcing contributing to the extended timeline.
“The extreme remoteness of the site has limited access to construction labor markets requiring costly transportation and housing of the necessary building trades/disciplines by the general contractor, further increasing the cost of construction,” GSA stated.
Workers must be transported into the town of Coburn Gore due to its small population. North Franklin, the Maine territory that includes Coburn Gore, had a population of 41 people on the 2020 census.
Another challenge is the potential $8 million cost to connect the current site to three-phase electrical power, required by CBP, with the nearest source 22 miles away in Eustis, Maine.
There are significant weather-related challenges for the project, GSA said. The border crossing’s location in the northern snowbelt subjects it to harsh winter conditions, severely limiting the construction season to a five-month window from May to September. This compressed time frame, coupled with the extreme weather, complicates construction activities and substantially increases costs for the project.
GSA expects the final project cost to range from $85 million to $95 million, accounting for potential cost escalations. “Post-COVID construction costs, while beginning to stabilize in 2024, have seen significant dynamic pricing challenges over the past several years in the sourcing of materials and goods, exacerbated by long lead time equipment items,” GSA stated.
The Coburn Gore crossing is linked to Canada’s Saint-Augustin-de-Woburn port of entry. The town of Woburn boasts one of the highest altitudes (3,914 feet) among Quebec’s mountain areas.
Delays at customs and border crossings between Maine’s land ports of entry and Canada negatively impact the state’s export trade, according to the state transportation department’s most recent freight plan.
Canada is Maine’s largest export market, with trucks hauling the bulk of that freight. Last year, Maine’s exports to Canada amounted to $1.4 billion (nearly half its total exports), according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
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