After a year and a half of meetings, engineering design, and work on necessary permits, the first phase of Gouldsboro’s climate adaptation work on the roads around Corea Harbor is nearly complete. This post offers a brief retrospective view of key project events, summarizes the current project status, and looks ahead to the commencement of construction work.
Key Events and Decisions
In July 2024, Gouldsboro received a $50,000 grant from Maine’s Community Action Grant Program to bring town residents together with engineers and environmental specialists to explore alternative road designs for two locations around Corea Harbor that were flooded and impassable during the January 10, 2024, storm. The two locations, the Crowley Island Road Causeway (the “Causeway”) and the stream crossing near the junction of Corea Road and Francis Pound Road (the “Junction”), are highlighted in the aerial photo at the top of this post. (See this post from last July for photos of the flooding.) The Town supplemented the grant with an additional $50,246 from funding that it received through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Gouldsboro’s Coastal Resilience Committee (CRC) brought together Corea residents in late August for a project overview and to hear their concerns and personal experiences before, during, and after the winter storms of 2024. Engineers and hydrologists from Streamworks PLLC and FB Environmental Associates joined the meeting. Residents broke into two groups, one focused on the Causeway and the other on the Junction, to share what they had seen and what they knew. Residents urged immediate action. This September post summarizes the key takeaways from that meeting.
In September and October, Streamworks and FB Environmental developed three design alternatives for each location. Each set of three designs offered a range of tradeoffs between storm and flood protection and cost. In mid-November, residents met once again with the CRC and the consultants to consider the alternative designs.
Acceleration and Narrowing the Project Focus
Three critically important insights and developments emerged in the months following the November meeting
- The consultants developed cost estimates for each alternative, and the CRC and Select Board recognized that only the lowest-cost alternatives for each location would be financially feasible without substantial outside support.
- Gouldsboro learned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will provide funding to enable Gouldsboro to repair the Causeway and restore it to its condition and elevation as it was when the Army Corps of Engineers built it in the mid-1980s. This will raise the road about two feet at the midpoint of the Causeway, which is what the lowest-cost design alternative would do. Gouldsboro will solicit bids for the reconstruction and elevation of the Causeway in 2026.
- The new federal leadership signaled less willingness to invest in climate-related projects. However, state programs were still operational, committed to supporting climate adaptation, and had secured funds to continue this effort for at least another year or two.
In light of this new information, the CRC and consultants, with Select Board approval, decided to narrow the project’s focus and expedite the transition from planning to action. As proposed, the project would have delivered an analysis of all the alternatives and a recommended preferred alternative for the two locations. Instead, the project team decided to revise the project tasks and scope within the original budget constraints to:
- Focus solely on the lowest-cost alternative for the Junction, which will raise the road at the stream crossing by two feet.
- Develop permit-ready design drawings and impact estimates.
- Conduct the wetland delineation and other data collection required for permitting.
- Communicate with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP) and other relevant agencies to advance as far as possible through the permitting process, considering budget and time constraints.
Gouldsboro decided to explore making these changes so that it would be in a position to seek final design and construction funding upon completion of the project. Rather than just having preferred alternatives, the Town would be close to “shovel-ready.”
Making this “pivot” in the middle of the project was possible only because Streamworks and FB Environmental were willing to try and, ultimately, were able to devise a plan that worked within the budget and timeframe. They could have said no. Gouldsboro is grateful that they said, “We’ll try.”
Gouldsboro is also grateful for the support it received from the program leadership within the Community Resilience Partnership and the Community Action Grant program. They saw why the Town was trying to reshape the project and got behind it.
Current Project Status
As of the start of November 2025, we have permit-level design drawings, the wetland delineation for the stream crossing site, and plans for routing traffic during construction. The Town and its consultants have met with the MDEP and the Army Corps of Engineers, gaining a good understanding of the next steps toward permitting, should permitting be required. (There is a possibility that the project is exempt from permit requirements. We expect to know more about that in the next few weeks.)
When complete, the project will replace the current 48″ culvert at the stream crossing with a 12-foot-long, 24-foot-wide steel bridge with a 10-foot open span that provides for improved water flow, as illustrated below. The circle in the middle of the drawing represents the diameter of the current culvert.
The bridge and surrounding road improvements are designed to enable the town to increase the roadway elevation in the future, should that be necessary, while reusing the steel bridge structure and supporting abutments.
What’s Next
Gouldsboro’s contract with the state for the Community Action Grant runs through December 31. At that time, the Town will have what it needs to begin seeking funding from the state or elsewhere to cover a portion of the estimated $550,000 cost for the final design and construction of the bridge and road elevation. The state plans to offer at least one financial assistance program in 2026 that might meet the Town’s needs. If Gouldsboro received an award from that program, construction could begin in late 2026 or in 2027.
As mentioned above, Gouldsboro will solicit bids for the reconstruction and elevation of the Causeway in 2026.
