After 15 years of back-and-forth, the Maine Department of Transportation announced this week it plans to install a “longer-term temporary bridge” over the Machias causeway in an effort to shore up the deteriorating span. The bridge is expected to last 15 to 20 years.
The decision comes after the Federal Highway Administration notified MaineDOT that it would likely be required to conduct an environmental impact assessment in order to move forward with its preferred alternative of updating the deteriorating dike with an “in-kind” replacement.
“MaineDOT’s core mission is to ensure safe and reliable transportation,” said commissioner Bruce Van Note in a press release this week. “To achieve that in this case, we need to construct a more durable temporary bridge, pause the federal environmental review process, and work with the towns as developments unfold. This work includes a local effort to plan for resiliency.”
The causeway is a critical roadway in the area, and in recent years it has been battered by storms and higher tides. After portions of the dike’s foundation washed away last fall, residents were forced to take lengthy detours. DOT eventually installed a temporary bridge to allow traffic to pass, but the structure is not intended to last long, said Van Note.
The dike and causeway essentially function as a dam with a road on top. Four one-way gates under the road (known around town as “clappers”) allow water to flow out from the river to the sea, but not the other way around.
But in recent years, the sea has been coming upriver anyway. Higher tides and storm surges have flooded up and over the road, nibbling at its edges and eroding the embankments. The culverts that allow water passage below the causeway are nearly a century old and in dire need of replacement.
The Quoddy Tides reported last week that a group of stakeholders, led by the Sunrise County Economic Council and the DOT, are finalizing a collaborative agreement to find a long-term solution for the dike — along with resilience planning for other infrastructure concerns in town, including the wastewater and stormwater systems, the landfill and issues with downtown flooding.
A longer-term temporary bridge will give the group time to explore the issues facing Machias more fully, said Tora Johnson, director of the Sustainable Prosperity Initiative at the Sunrise County Economic Council.
“This is not a simple situation,” said Johnson. But it will “make space for the deeper conversation we’re trying to have about the project.” Johnson said she was pleased DOT was willing to partner on the master plan for the region and to “collaborate with the community more broadly.”
The temporary bridge “is not a solution to any of the issues we’re experiencing now, except that the dike’s failure is imminent,” said Johnson. “There’s a way in which this is kicking the can down the road, but it’s also really, really worthwhile to make the right decision, taking into account the pros and cons.”
Johnson said that flooding and overtopping of the dike, which has happened more frequently in recent years, will continue “until something else replaces the dike.”
The announcement this week comes after dozens of public meetings over the course of more than a decade and the consideration of more than 20 possible options. It also comes after a dramatic reversal by DOT, which announced in 2022 that it would replace the causeway with a traditional bridge, stretching roughly 1,000 feet, with a wide span in the middle for water to flow back and forth.
In June of that year, the department’s chief engineer told residents that simply replacing the dike with something similar to what exists today was “no longer viable.” At the time, she said construction could begin in 2024.
Several nonprofit groups and some residents cheered the initial decision to build a bridge, hopeful that it would restore tidal flow to the wetlands and river upstream, provide for better fish passage and mitigate flooding, an increasingly severe issue as sea levels rise. But many property owners were concerned, as a bridge allowing free water flow would have flooded hundreds of acres of land and as many as 54 properties upstream.
A year later, in 2023, the department reversed itself, saying it preferred fully-gated culverts as a replacement, similar to what already exists.
Federal officials said that plan would require an environmental impact statement, a federal document that outlines alternatives and potential impacts on endangered species, air quality, historical and cultural sites and local communities. Such assessments can take years. A draft environmental assessment has yet to be made public.
The new, longer-term temporary bridge over the dike that DOT announced this week will not require federal permits or review and is expected to be completed in 2025. The structure is expected to cost around $2 million, according to DOT, money that will come from state funds.
“We understand residents and Route 1 travelers in Machias and Marshfield are frustrated with how long this project is taking, and we share that frustration,” said Van Note. “This project has raised unanticipated regulatory issues, resulting in much more permitting process and time than expected.”
