A causeway in Kennebunkport connecting the mainland to an island critical to the local fishing industry reopened Monday. The revamped causeway is also symbolic of how Maine communities are trying to adapt to more intense weather as the climate changes.
Officials say will the causeway is now resistant to flooding during major storms. A $2.6 million grant backed by state and federal funding paid for the work, part of Gov. Janet Mills’ Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund.
In remarks in Kennebunkport Monday, Mills noted she signed an order last month establishing the Infrastructure Rebuilding and Resilience Commission to examine how vulnerable communities are to storm damage.
“We know the storms are coming,” Mills said. “They’re not a one-off thing, the storms we saw in January and last December, going back to 2018. So, in places like Kennebunkport, we’re seeing these problems all across the state, and we’re addressing them, we’re dealing with them, with the help of the Maine Legislature.”
The causeway is a 450-foot stretch of Pier Road connecting to Bickford Island and is now four feet higher above sea level.
Eric Labelle, the town’s engineer and public works director, said in previous years, flooding from coastal storms made the causeway impassible “several times a year.”
Labelle said it has been a perennial problem, noting there were four nor’easters in March 2018 alone.
“In the old causeway, the water would have been up to the tops of those guardrails,” Labelle said, pointing to new guardrails on the new causeway Monday.
Labell said the causeway project started in February, and just finished last weekend. Raising it four feet may not sound like much, but Labelle said it’s enough to protect from future storm surges.
When the causeway floods, Labell said, not only is it unsafe for normal traffic, but emergency vehicles can’t cross it either.
“When it’s that deep, there’s no getting across,” he said. “It really shuts the island down until it recedes.”
And that matters. During a ceremony celebrating the end of the work on Monday, the quiet traffic belied how busy the road is. An estimated 1,000 vehicles cross it each day to and from Bickford Island.
The island is home to 20 residences, along with two restaurants and Kennebunkport’s only commercial pier. Officials said about 50 vessels are based there, employing about 100 fishermen who bring an estimated $10 million to the local economy.
“The Pier Road Causeway to Bickford Island is not just a road,” said Kennebunkport Town Manager Laurie Smith Monday. “It is the lifeline for our residents, fishermen and emergency services.”
Labell said the town is already looking at similar projects for reinforcing roads along Wamby Beach, and guarding against erosion at the Head of the Harbor area. The projects, he said, are part of a larger plan to guard against storm damage.
“People have been losing their seawalls,” he said.