PORTLAND (AP) – Cianbro, a construction company undertaking its first shipbuilding project, is helping restore a dying industry through its work on two massive oil rigs, the federal maritime administrator said Thursday.

Captain William Schubert, who toured the waterfront with U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, Mayor Nathan Smith, city ports director Jeffrey Monroe and Cianbro President Peter Vigue, said the $100 million project represents “in part a rebirth of commercial shipbuilding in the state of Maine.”

“There is a renaissance currently taking place in commercial shipbuilding on the East Coast, and Cianbro can rightly claim to be one of the leaders and pioneers in revitalizing this industrial capacity,” Schubert said.

Cianbro’s workers are finishing work on a massive oil rig project that provided jobs for 1,000 people on the Portland waterfront.

The project marked the first offshore oil work undertaken by Pittsfield-based Cianbro, Maine’s largest construction firm. The company is better known for outfitting pulp and paper mill plants and fixing bridges.

Cianbro renovated an 87,000-square-foot dilapidated state pier and a 140,000-square-foot warehouse for use on the project, and the company signed a $1 million annual lease with the city of Portland to use the site.

“It took a real leap of faith for Cianbro to enter the maritime industry as a shipbuilder and true vision on the part of the city to become a partner in Cianbro’s belief that it could succeed as a shipbuilder,” Schubert said.

Cianbro, which is wrapping up work on the oil platforms, hopes to find new commercial shipbuilding or ship-repair work in coming years.

The two rigs were brought to Portland from separate Gulf Coast yards in Orange, Texas, and Pascagoula, Miss., after the companies that were building them for Brazilian-based Petrodrill sank into bankruptcy.

One of the 12,000-ton oil rigs is currently being tested in deep water while the other is still tied up at the pier.

Schubert also praised another project on the waterfront that dovetails with efforts to relieve highway congestion.

The city intends to redevelop its international marine terminal into a dedicated cargo facility. Part of the project involves a “short sea” concept in which tractor-trailer rigs would drive to the waterfront and drop off trailers.

Under the concept, trucks destined for New York, for example, could drive onto a vessel and be shipped to New York Harbor. Once there, another driver would take the truck to its final destination, Monroe said.

With a goal of reducing the strain on highways, there is an anticipation some money for highway improvements may be earmarked for improving marine facilities like the terminal in Portland, Monroe said.

AP-ES-01-08-04 1746EST