On MDI, contractors band together to fix storm-damaged road — for free

Photo / Laurie Schreiber BFP Trucking was removing rubble from the Seawall Road on the morning of July 22.

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Contractors from Southwest Harbor and beyond said they will donate time and materials to fix a section of the popular Seawall Road that was damaged by storms last winter.

According to a post on John Goodwin Jr. Construction’s Facebook page last week, the contractors “are going to begin rebuilding the beloved Seawall Road as a donation to our communities on Monday, July 22.” The companies donating their work include Goodwin, Doug Gott & Sons Inc., BFP Trucking, Rings Paving, Northeast Paving and GT Outhouses.

The post continued, “All of the contractors are in hopes of having this road back open with two lanes of traffic by Friday, July 26.”

Contractors are taking time from their busy summer schedules, said Tim Gott, who leads Doug Gott & Sons, a general contractor in Southwest Harbor.

“Very busy, but you got to do it,” he told Mainebiz.

Seawall Road is the common name for a segment of Route 102A that runs past a portion of Acadia National Park on the southwest side of Mount Desert Island.

The Seawall Road is covered with cobblestones.

File photo / Laurie Schreiber

The Seawall Road, seen here after a January storm, buckled and was blanketed by cobblestones due to storm surges.

Most of Acadia, plus the busy tourist town Bar Harbor, is on MDI’s northeast side. Other parts of the park, plus the towns of Southwest Harbor and Tremont, are on the less touristy southwest side of the island, long dubbed "the quiet side."

Although less touristy, the quiet side has numerous attractions, including Seawall, a stretch of shoreline covered with cobblestones.

In January and March, the Seawall Road was damaged by storms at the location where it passes between the ocean and a pond, making it impassable.

The Maine Department of Transportation fixed the section after the January storms. But the section was damaged again by a storm in March and has remained closed since then. Electronic signs at each end of Route 102A notify drivers of the closure

It's been affecting businesses along the road.

Charlotte Gill, who runs Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound, a takeout restaurant half a mile from the closed section, said business is down 70% compared with the same time last year.

“In the last week or so, it’s started to pick up a little bit, and that also has to do with it’s just the time of year where it does start to pick up, but nothing compared to the former numbers,” she said.

Charlotte's is a takeout restaurant with lots of red decor.

Photo / Laurie Schreiber

Business is down 70% at Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound due to lack of tourist traffic to Seawall.

In June, DOT held a public meeting in Southwest Harbor that drew scores of attendees, and has also fielded emails, phone calls and mail about the closure.

“As expected, most requested that the road be reopened as quickly as possible to reduce perceived negative impacts on local businesses, emergency response time and in-home services,” DOT Commissioner Bruce Van Note wrote in a July 12 memo to the town of Southwest Harbor.

Van Note said the likelihood that the road would become more vulnerable as the impacts of climate change become more severe resulted in the department’s’ decision to conduct a more thorough assessment to identify a long-term solution.

In a July 15 letter from DOT Deputy Commissioner Dale Doughty to the town of Southwest Harbor, DOT said would provide a full repair to the road next spring with additional resiliency features, at an estimated cost of $900,000 to $1 million.

If future storms continue to damage the road after those DOT repairs, future repairs would be carried out and financially supported through a partnership among the DOT, the town of Southwest Harbor and the National Park Service.

For now, though, the DOT agreed to develop an agreement with the town of Southwest Harbor and its local contracting partners to make a temporary repair for the remaining summer of 2024, with the town responsible for contractor oversight, environmental compliance and safety and DOT assisting with signage.

For Gott, it was an easy decision.

“There’s people down there who have businesses, whether it’s firewood or the little grocery store there — they can’t make any money if people can’t get through there,” he said.

Facebook commenters, not surprisingly, were enthusiastic.

“Now THIS is community,” said one.

“All of you guys are ROCK STARS!!!” said another.

Said Gill, “It’s just so exciting that all these community businesses are stepping forward and they’re working together and they’re going to get that done.”