Friday, August 14th, 2026: Eastport approves data center moratorium; Old Town bridge collapse raises question about UMaine composite material

From Maine Public Radio and Mainepublic.org, I'm Ari Snyder with the news on this day in Maine, Friday, August 14th, 2026. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson downplayed a report in the Bangor Daily News that detailed a fight he got into when he was 19 years old, saying it's a distraction from his campaign against Republican Senator Susan Collins. At a campaign stop in Westbrook Friday, Jackson took responsibility for punching another man during an altercation that took place 38 years ago. He also said a police report claiming he pushed his ex-girlfriend during the scuffle is untrue. This to me, I'm not going to say it's nothing, it isn't, but it was 38 years ago when I was 19 and I owned it then and I owned it today. And that's all I can do. Lana Pellateer, who is now Jackson's partner, has said Jackson has never been violent with her and that she had no recollection of telling police otherwise. The story has fed into a narrative that Republicans have been building ever since he replaced Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee in late July. Attack ads have tried to paint Jackson as tempestuous and misogynistic. The Eastport City Council has enacted a six-month pause on all data center development while it reviews a proposed permanent ban. As Peter McGuire reports, plans to study an underwater data center have triggered widespread local opposition. The moratorium prohibits approval of any large computing development or associated infrastructure onshore or in the water. In a Facebook post, Councillor Karen Ray said the temporary ban would give the city time to review and evaluate two ordinances brought by citizen petitions. The first is a total ban on large-scale data centers. The other would change zoning rules for water pollution and require a referendum to approve major development projects. A recent legal analysis for the city found that measure would violate Eastport's charter. There was broad opposition in the city against a proposal by Deep Green Western Passage to study the feasibility of an underwater data center in Passamaquoddy Bay. The company's permit application has not been approved by federal regulators. For Maine Public Radio News, I'm Peter McGuire. Maine's passenger rail authority has won a $48 million federal grant to build a new Portland train station. The station will be built along the main line track between Northern Light Mercy Hospital and St. John Street. The city of Portland wanted the new station built closer to Congress Street, but Rail Authority Executive Director Patricia Quinn says that wasn't feasible. We are, you know, looking forward to working with the city to the extent that they're willing to, you know, design and develop a station, you know, a regional station that really meets the needs of the traveling public.

Quinn says it could be another year or two before construction begins, as it stands now, trains must back into or out of the station on Thompson's point, adding travel time and fuel cost. Organizers of a petition to ban flock cameras in the city of Auburn say more than 1,600 signatures were certified by the city clerk this week. The cameras are a brand of automated license plate readers. Law enforcement can use the technology as a crime-fighting tool, but some Auburn residents and lawmakers have raised concerns about privacy. The initiative now heads to the Auburn City Council, which can pass an ordinance to ban the cameras or send the question to voters in the November election. Mainers who buy health insurance on the state marketplace for 2027 will once again see average rate increases in the double digits. Patty White reports. Average increases in Maine are in line with a national median proposed rate increase of 15%. Maine's individual market will see a slightly lower average rate increase of just under 15%. For the small group market, it's 13.5%. Those are both lower increases than last year, which were 24 and 18% respectively for the individual and small group markets. The State Bureau of Insurance says the higher rates are the result of inflation, as well as the rising cost of prescription drugs, more use of health. health care services, and expensive provider contracts. More than 100,000 manors buy health insurance on the state individual and small group markets. Patty White reporting, on Thursday morning, a section of a new bridge under construction in Old Town collapsed and fell partly into the Stillwater River. Several workers suffered minor injuries and the main Department of Transportation has launched an investigation. We are joined now by Maine Public State House correspondent Kevin Miller to give us an update on this unique bridge, which was partly designed by engineers at the University of Maine. Kevin, you were out there on Thursday a few hours after this bridge section collapsed, so let's start by explaining where this bridge is located and what you saw. Yeah, so thanks, Ari. So as you mentioned, this bridge crosses the Stillwater River just north of Orono. And for anyone who's been to Orno or to the U-Maine campus, the Stillwater is the river that flows along the edge of campus and then through downtown Orno. And Stillwater Avenue, where the bridge is located, is a really busy road between Old Town and Bangor. Construction crews were apparently pouring concrete on the bridge surface when one of the three sections collapsed. Now I should point out that traffic goes over a temporary bridge that's next to this new structure. So while there were construction workers on the bridge when it collapsed, this new bridge is entirely separate from the one that people drive across. And as I understand it, this is not your typical bridge. Yeah, no, that's right. So this new bridge was being constructed using a new type of girder that's been developed by engineers at the University of Maine. So if you visualize a bridge, girders are those large horizontal support beams underneath the roadway, and they're typically made of steel or other materials. Umain has been developing what are known as fiber-reinforced polymer girders that are very strong, but they're much lighter, about one-quarter of the weight of a steel girder, but they're also corrosion resistant.

And according to materials put out by Humane's advanced structures and composite center, these composite girders are designed to last more than 100 years and with much less maintenance. So what do we know so far about what happened on Thursday that caused this collapse? Yes, that's the thing. We don't really know too much. And I have to say it's been a challenge to get any information, both from the Department of Transportation or from University of Maine. The DOT put out a press release this afternoon, saying that the department is collecting data and information from its partners on, quote, all aspects of the design, fabrication, and construction of the bridge, and that they were going to be doing a thorough review. But the release doesn't mention the fact that this is a relatively new design technology, or even that the University of Maine is involved. And has Humane commented on this? Yeah, they haven't. A spokesman for both the advanced structures and composite center and UMaine's head communications office declined to comment on Friday when I reached them, and they referred me over to the Maine DOT. And I'll just add that... After the bridge collapsed on Thursday, I was able to find a video posted on YouTube by UMaine's Engineering Center just a few months ago, and this was all about the Stillwater Bridge project. It was about seven minutes long, and it went into a lot of detail about the composite technology, but by Friday morning, that video was gone. It's been taken down. But I did find another video of one of the engineers on the project, Civil and Structural Engineering Professor Bill Davids, talking about the project. And here's a clip. These are longer spans than all prior structures. We're pushing the limits there. And we also want to build this, more importantly, using a multi-span continuous structure, continuous for live load. This is never, as far as I know, been done with an FRP gridder bridge. So what do we know about what happens now with this new bridge? So we don't know much, and I believe that's probably a source of major frustration for local residents and officials who have been dealing with this construction project for several years. One of our colleagues, Michael Livingston, talked to several Old Town select board members, and one of them, Michael May, here's a bit of what he had to say. I know that the DOT before the bridge gets a final sign off and people start traversing it. It's going to be fine. So I don't really have any concerns about the finished. bridge. You know, obviously the biggest concerns that I have about the bridge is the pushing back of the timeline of when the bridge will be completed, which is supposed to be at the end of 2027. So it sounds like this is still very much a developing story. It is, and I suspect that it might be a little while before we learn what exactly caused the collapse. And that is Maine Public State House correspondent, Kevin Miller. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you. And that's today's main news. For more stories, visit mainpublic.org. Join us tomorrow morning at 8 for weekend edition on Maine Public Radio. I'm Ari Snyder. Thanks for listening.