Kennebunkport town leaders say climate change threatens important causeway - fox23maine.com

Kennebunkport town leaders say climate change threatens important causeway

CAPE PROPOISE (WGME) – Every day, 1,000 vehicles use a causeway to get on and off Bickford Island in Cape Porpoise, which is home to the town's commercial fishing port.

In recent years, rising tides and storm surges have forced the causeway to close numerous times.

Cape Porpoise in Kennebunkport is home to the largest commercial fishing harbor between Portland and Portsmouth.

During astronomical high tides and storm surges, floodwaters closed the only road that goes to the wharf, a restaurant and several homes out on Bickford Island.

"Even this past February, they got a taste of why they raised this road about four and a half feet," MaineDOT Commissioner Bruce Van Note said.

Van Note says two years ago, 13 Maine communities received $20 million in climate resiliency grants to address flooding along the ocean and rivers.

Pier Road in Kennebunkport was one of those projects.

"This is one of the more major ones,” Van Note said. “And every single one of them is doing something really important in the community."

Town leaders say due to climate change, the causeway flooded several times a year.

"It was flooding on a regular basis, inhibiting people to get to work, to get to their property," Kennebunkport Town Manager Laurie Smith said.

"During high tides, in both minor and major storms, crews have been forced to close Pier Road, leaving homeowners and businesses cut off in an emergency, threatening both lives and livelihoods," Governor Janet Mills said.

Monday, the governor joined town leaders and the crew that built the new causeway in officially opening it to the public.

"With record high sea levels this year, and nearly four feet of additional sea rise projected in the next 76 years, it's clear we can't leave Pier Road or other roads like it as vulnerable as it has been," Mills said.

The town also applied for grants to rebuild the Bickford Island Wharf, raise other coastal roads and replace a sea wall by a beach near the Bush compound.