Impact & Investments

Bath Iron Works plans to invest in parking and transportation improvements along the Washington Street corridor, including a new parking garage, expanded surface lots, and other traffic enhancements and pedestrian safety features.

BIW is proposing a parking garage that will accommodate 940 vehicles on the site of the current main parking lot at the shipyard’s north end. The building’s footprint would be about half the size of the existing parking area with four levels above grade and two below grade. The project is expected to be completed in 2028.

BIW would expand surface-level parking in two primary locations: across the street from the north end of the shipyard and at the south end of the shipyard. The result should reduce shipyard-related traffic impacts on the residential sections of the south end while also improving pedestrian safety and traffic efficiency.

Benefits of this project extend beyond parking. Expanded green space adjacent to Commercial Street will provide a better pedestrian connection to downtown Bath. Traffic flow will be improved for shift changes. There will be less oily runoff than there would be with surface lots of similar capacity. The parking garage is designed to anticipate rising sea levels and storm water treatment systems will exceed code requirements.

Parking challenges have been a persistent issue, contributing to workforce attrition and representing a barrier to hiring new employees. Along with these new improvements, we will maintain our existing efforts to ease parking pressure, including using shuttle lots, providing priority parking privileges to carpools and vanpools, and subsidizing the WMTS and BREEZ commuter buses.