{"id":431,"date":"2026-04-03T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/?p=431"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:00:00","slug":"deer-isle-needs-millions-of-dollars-to-rebuild-another-causeway-at-risk-from-rising-sea-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Deer Isle needs millions of dollars to rebuild another causeway at risk from rising sea levels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"bdn_paywall_content\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Everlit Audio Player\" src=\"https:\/\/everlit.audio\/embeds\/artl_wQWylHlWqRa?ui_title_intro=Listen+now%3A&amp;ui_title_icon=headphones&amp;client=wp&amp;client_version=3.0.3\" width=\"100%\" height=\"130px\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Funding has finally been put toward state reconstruction of the main Deer Isle Causeway, which connects the island to the mainland via Route 15, but that doesn&#8217;t mean the town&#8217;s causeway problems are over.<\/p>\n<p>As well as the main causeway, another smaller causeway connecting Sunshine Island to the rest of Deer Isle is also at risk of collapse. But the facility is owned by the town, not the state, so construction must be funded by local taxpayers or grants.<\/p>\n<p>Already narrow and lacking guardrails, it had been damaged by rising sea levels and storms, and at one point had gaping holes beneath the asphalt. If closed, residents and the seasonal craft school would be stranded. <\/p>\n<p>But Deer Isle is reluctant to borrow large sums of money and faces stiff competition for grants as it seeks to fund other time-sensitive, multimillion-dollar projects. <\/p>\n<p>The vulnerability of the Sunshine Causeway is another example of how Maine communities are struggling with the high costs of critical local infrastructure projects as prices and budgets soar, especially in coastal towns.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a very thin thread that grips us, and that&#8217;s what gives us access here,&#8221; said Walter Kumiega, facilities director at Haystack Mountain Craft School on the island.<\/p>\n<p>He has driven the causeway regularly since 2004, first as a contractor and now as staff, and has watched it continue to deteriorate as sea levels visibly rise. Even on calm days, water can sometimes spill over the edge of the road.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Haystack, which hosts visiting students and artists from May to October and attracted 2,500 visitors in 2023, Sunshine Village has a church, a campground, several home-based businesses and several small lobster ponds, but there aren&#8217;t many resources if the road is cut off, Cumiega said. <\/p>\n<p>No census data is collected on the island itself, which is part of the town of Deer Isle, but the population is small and seasonal. That makes it difficult to get project funding, said Kumiega, who is also a former state representative for the town and neighboring islands. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of political influence here to get funding to repair the causeway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The case of the Deer Isle Causeway, the only road connecting Deer Isle and Stonington to the mainland bridge, was different. The road is owned by the state, and after years of local advocacy, the state secured the $12 million in Congressional-directed spending needed to begin the $22 million reconstruction earlier this year. <\/p>\n<p>The road has been flooded and damaged by storms, and was under 18 inches of water during a historic storm in January 2024. Town Manager Jim Fisher said the town is currently focusing on options for the second most vulnerable roadway, the Sunshine Causeway, as reconstruction progresses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That road is definitely a top priority in terms of climate vulnerability,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p>Rather than flooding, he is more concerned about the river bed of the causeway becoming eroded and becoming unstable. The town has made repairs, but the storm left a gap under the asphalt large enough for a person to fit their arm through. <\/p>\n<p>Fisher said the road is narrow, 6.5 feet wide, and has no shoulders or guardrails. Two large trucks trying to pass each other could break each other&#8217;s mirrors, or a driver veering off the road could hit a rock, causing serious damage to the vehicle. <\/p>\n<p>According to BDN archives, in 2002 a man lost control of his car and drove over a rock at the edge of an embankment, where he died. <\/p>\n<p>Fisher wants to make the road at least a few feet higher and a few feet wider. He thinks the ideal would be to widen the lanes by 6 feet, widen each lane by 1 foot, and add 2 feet of shoulder. It may also make sense to raise the road along the edges for smoother movement. But it&#8217;s all about money, he added. <\/p>\n<p>He doesn&#8217;t have a firm cost estimate yet, but he expects construction alone to cost at least $2 million, and possibly millions more. The town also needs to complete professional engineering plans, drafted by University of Maine students in 2024, for the redesign, which includes building on surrounding wetlands, and obtain permits.<\/p>\n<p>Deer Isle may already need to borrow millions of dollars to build a new fire station soon, but Fisher can&#8217;t imagine borrowing millions more. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;limited to [the causeway] &#8220;It hasn&#8217;t completely failed, so we&#8217;ll be limping along while we continue to raise funds,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p>Kumiega said Sunshine residents try not to think too much about the unstable road, but losing it would be a &#8220;nightmare&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>He himself has written a letter to the town asking it to consider replacing it, and knows residents near the causeway are asking for guardrails. On the other hand, he noted that Sunshine Road is narrower and more winding than the main road, so it tends to have less traffic and slower vehicle speeds. It will also be somewhat less exposed to the elements. <\/p>\n<p>If the roads are closed, Haystack will likely have to close, at least temporarily, he said, but extreme weather events are more likely to occur in the winter when there are no classes. He also expects the causeway will have difficulty raising funds. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no one around here who thinks the causeway can survive another period of time &#8230; no matter what schedule they choose,&#8221; he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s no secret that we need to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Deer #Isle #millions #dollars #rebuild #causeway #risk #rising #sea #levels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funding has finally been put toward state reconstruction of the main Deer Isle Causeway, which connects the island to the mainland via Route 15, but that doesn&#8217;t mean the town&#8217;s causeway problems are over. As well as the main causeway, another smaller causeway connecting Sunshine Island to the rest of Deer Isle is also at &#8230; <a title=\"Deer Isle needs millions of dollars to rebuild another causeway at risk from rising sea levels\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/golliza.com\/?p=431\" aria-label=\"Read more about Deer Isle needs millions of dollars to rebuild another causeway at risk from rising sea levels\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[1738,89,1734,1736,1735,1739,978,1737,668,261,1186,1733],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-general","tag-causeway","tag-climate-change","tag-deer","tag-dollars","tag-isle","tag-levels","tag-millions","tag-rebuild","tag-rising","tag-risk","tag-sea","tag-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}