Like many waterfront towns, Castine was hit hard by the January storms. One of its many specific victims was a harbor dock, an area about 40-feet by 40-feet, popular with tourists for its proximity to parking, views of the anchorage at the mouth of the Bagaduce River, and of Maine Maritime Academy’s State of Maine training vessel when it’s in port.
The Castine Town Dock, as it’s known, was destroyed by those storms as high water lifted the decking off the joists. The ragged remains were removed soon after.
But even as the storm raged, Harbormaster Scott Vogell was planning the rebuild. Rather than return the decking—which was the typical wood, an estimated 3-3/4-inches thick by 8-inches wide—Vogell inquired about new materials.
Two products were found—ThruFlow and Titan Open X. As the names imply, both are designed to allow rising seas to rise up through the deck without tearing it off the joists.
Vogell was the project manager on the work, conferring with the town harbor committee, and Islesboro Marine Services was hired to rebuild the dock. They decided to go with Titan Open X for decking, but there were other changes made to the structure.
Pilings were replaced, and the carrying beams now have 4-inch by 18-inch steel plates on both sides which are then lag-bolted to the pilings. The joists were set 2-feet on center, which allows more water to rise up through without encountering resistance.
But the game changer was the Titan Open X decking, which Vogell says allows more water to pass through it than the decking that it replaced.
“That has 37% or 38% of the water that hits it, it goes up through it,” he said. And unlike wood, “This stuff sinks. The fact that it’s not buoyant” helps keep it attached to the joists.
Castine tapped $500,000 from a contingency fund to repair the dock, as well as to address other damage caused by the storms, Vogell said, including washouts at Fort Madison, which is now a waterfront park; Water Street; and a road just outside the village area.
Adjacent to the Castine Town Dock is the Acadia Dock, which also will be repaired soon, he added.
The town dock project cost about $175,000. Perhaps surprisingly, using the Titan product for decking material was comparable in cost to using the traditional wood, Vogell said.
Being proactive helped the town recover, he said, and get the seasonally busy waterfront up and running.
“I had boats in the water by April 18,” he said.
