HARPSWELL — After the collapse of a mooring dolphin and gangway connected to the pier at Mitchell Field two weeks ago, town officials are considering how best to deal with the deteriorating structure that could cost millions to repair or demolish.

Last week, the Board of Selectmen approved asking voters on June 12 to approve a special $25,000 appropriation to fund removal of the collapsed gangway and another similar structure that is still standing.

Harbormaster Jim Hays said he’s still accepting bids for the project. He expects the project to cost between $20,000 and $25,000.

Prior to the collapse, Hays said, there was no reason to take action on the pier — previously used to dock Navy fuel-carrying vessels — that town officials have known was in bad shape.

In January, a review by engineers with the firm TEC Associates found the pier’s support structure “to be in very poor condition.”

In response to that review, the town closed the pier to all pedestrian uses, but Town Administrator Kristi Eiane said the downed gangway now raises concern about access to the pier from the water.

“The town is concerned that we may need to remove that hanging bridge so that people can’t go from the water side to climb up and get on the pier,” Eiane said.

With the north mooring dolphin collapsed and the south structure receiving a similar prognosis after inspection by engineers, Hays said bids on the project would include removal of both gangways but would leave the mooring dolphins untouched.

As the pier is unsafe to hold pedestrians or vehicles, Hays said that a barge and crane would be required to remove the gangway structures.

Eiane said she was contacted by a local contractor who offered to take a wrecking truck onto the pier to remove the hanging bridge, but that is not an option.

For now, Eiane said town government’s efforts are focused on the immediate concern of the collapsed gangway, but the larger issue of what to do with the pier awaits.

A presentation by engineers from DeLuca- Hoffman last week put the cost of renovating that pier for passive recreation at around $1.7 million and the cost of demolition near $1 million.

A January report on infrastructure at Mitchell Field indicated that the pier has an “unquantifiable life span before it fails from dead weight.”

Before that happens, Eiane said, town officials hope to craft a plan to either stabilize or remove the pier.

At a special meeting Monday, Eiane said, the Board of Selectmen established a “firm disposition” on how to handle the pier as a goal.

Elinor Multer, chairwoman of the town’s Board of Selectmen, said that a decision on the pier will come against a larger backdrop of decisions to make about other structures — like two former Navy houses and a water tower — on the property that residents at a March 2001 town meeting voted to accept from the Navy.

 

dfishell@timesrecord.com