The Maine Military Authority's latest contract will put its skills rehabilitating troop carriers to work on vehicles designed to carry commuters and shoppers.
Boston's transit agency, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will pay $19 million to have 32 of its articulated buses rehabbed at the Military Authority's shops in Limestone.
Authority spokesman Tim Maccabe says the rehab will add about five years to the lives of the buses. McCabe says the original manufacturer doesn't make these buses anymore.
"If they did the cost of one of these new buses would be $1.8 million to $2 million," he says. "Our service is under $600,000 to realistically put it back to like-new condition."
The Maine Military Authority is a quasi-state agency. It works out of facilities at the former Loring Air Force base in Limestone.