The final construction has started for the much-anticipated Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton, Maine, including an 11,000-square-foot visitor welcome center and public transit hub to service visitors planning trips to Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park.

This multi-phase project delivers on aggressive sustainability goals—reducing traffic congestion on the Route 3 corridor and throughout the park, promoting alternative methods of transportation, and reducing carbon emissions from center operations. Once completed, the center will have nearly 300 parking spots for cars and 10 for RVs, plus 17 electric vehicle chargers, and the building will utilize geothermal heating/cooling, high efficiency energy recovery equipment, and a roof-mounted solar array.

The highly anticipated Gateway Center has been in the works for two decades. Allied Engineering, which joined Salas O’Brien in 2022, has been involved for the last 16 years providing support throughout all phases:

  • Serving as prime consultant for earlier phases of preliminary design and bus maintenance facility design, which received LEED® Gold certification.
  • Joining AECOM to support the Maine Department of Transportation with site development for the intermodal and welcome center.
  • Continuing partnership with AECOM on the final phases of design and construction to provide MEP and structural construction support services and commissioning for center facilities.

This final phase broke ground on Monday, May 22 and the center is expected to be completed and open to the public in Spring 2025.