Executive Assistant Commissioner of CBP's Office of Field Operations William Ferrara speaks at the groundbreaking anniversary for Madawaska'south new land port of entry on Thursday. Credit: Hannah Catlin / St. John Valley Times

MADAWASKA, Maine — The U.S. General Services Assistants and J&J Contractors have officially broken ground on a $71.seven million land port of entry project for the border crossing between Madawaska and Edmundston, New Brunswick.

Groundwork has already begun at the site of the new edifice where people enter the U.s. through Customs, but an official ceremony in the Multi Purpose Center on Thursday brought together regional dignitaries from the GSA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, surrogates from Maine's congressional delegation and local officials to discuss the progress on the project thus far.

The port of entry, too every bit a $97 million international bridge project across the St. John River, correspond not only a massive infrastructure upgrade in town, simply a renewed connexion between Madawaska and Edmundston — divided for more than a year by pandemic restrictions on international travel. The groundbreaking ceremony began with a performance of both the U.S. and Canadian national anthems.

"Days similar this, when nosotros can bring everyone together over again for that mutual benefit [are] really special," Executive Assistant Commissioner of CBP'southward Office of Field Operations William Ferrara said.

The projects volition be some of the largest construction undertakings in Madawaska in decades. The old international bridge, for example, was built exactly 100 years agone, and has been posted with a five-ton weight limit since 2017.

The port of entry will be significantly expanded from Madawaska'due south current facility, Ferrara said, and forth with the new building will come technological updates and an expansion of CBP'southward security abilities.

Not but will the larger facility potentially mean more CBP jobs, but Town Manager Gary Picard said that it will likely create more maintenance work also: "bigger buildings to rut, bigger driveways to plow."

Already, the Madawaska port of entry processes 430,000 southbound privately owned vehicles a year — more than 115 times the total population of Madawaska. But municipal leaders in both Edmundston and Madawaska accept advocated for additions to the project to promote even more international travel and flow of commerce betwixt the U.Southward. and Canada.

One major victory was convincing the Maine Section of Transportation to widen the span to accommodate a pedestrian and recreational vehicle lane.

The port of entry, meanwhile, will include a big work of fine art, which volition be visible from Chief Street, and which Picard hopes could be an attraction in itself. While the GSA already requires a half a pct of its project budgets to be spent on art, Picard worked directly with federal officials to exist sure the port of entry fits within the vision laid out in Madawaska's decade-long downtown revitalization program.

"It'due south hard to put into words the amount of work it'south taken to get to this point," Picard said. "Information technology'southward taken an enormous amount of collaboration."

The close bail between Madawaska and Edmundston was a highlight of speeches at the Th groundbreaking ceremony. Not only will thousands of tourists travel through the port of entry every year, but hundreds of families and friends visit the adjacent city to run into loved ones.

"Nosotros are the same people and we're just separated past a border," Picard said. "Having gone through border closings considering of COVID, information technology has made us realize that even more … We miss information technology."

GSA spokesperson Paul Hugues was unsure as of Friday what the immediate adjacent step in port of entry construction will be, and the GSA'south public timeline simply identifies summer 2021 as the commencement of structure.

Meanwhile, no further information has come to light about the fate of the Madawaska McDonald'south, which is still fully operational in the middle of the port of entry construction site. Negotiations for the acquisition of the McDonald's property, which is endemic by a local franchisee, have been ongoing for months.

Picard, who helped produce a seven-plus minute video request McDonald'south to relocate in boondocks, said he and his collaborators have not received whatsoever feedback from GSA or McDonald's corporate role.

Hannah Catlin is a reporter at the St. John Valley Times/Fiddlehead Focus in Madawaska, Maine. More by Hannah Catlin