Ells Pier Needs Repairs but Is Safe to Use
BAR HARBOR—Town Manager James Smith reports that though the town’s pier at the end of Main Street needs repairs after being walloped by a duo of storms in January, the structural engineer reported that the pier is safe to use. The storms involved high tides and strong storm surges. Cracks across the pier’s pavement emerged. Town officials were concerned that there could be voids under the structure.
“Staff will be meeting early next week to review the scope of work necessary to make these repairs in order to reopen the pier to the public,” Smith said. “Once we have had a chance to develop our action plan and timeline, we will provide the Council and the public an update.”
KJ Dugas dug four test pits for GEI Consultants. The group had already performed a visual inspection on January 22 after the storms. According to GEI’s March 4 memo to Bar Harbor Public Works Director Bethany Leavitt, “The test pits were excavated to the maximum practical depth below grade (ranging from 6 to 9 feet) based upon the equipment used and the obstructions encountered.”
The report describes the layers of the subsurface as consisting of asphalt and densely compacted base (pier deck), base gravel (gravel, silt, and sand), and fill which is more coarse and included boulders and large cobbles.
They did not find any groundwater in the test pits and believe that would be influenced by the tide.
GEI said it didn’t see voids or their signs, “loss of structural capacity,” or an increased risk that would make them recommend not using the pier. There was no “large scale instability.”
The January storms caused record damage up and down the Maine coast, destroying piers, roads, fish houses, and even exposing the wreck of a schooner on Sand Beach and decimating the popular Shore Path in Bar Harbor.
LINK TO LEARN MORE
The memo is below.
