State reconstruction of the main Deer Isle Causeway, which connects the island to the mainland via Route 15, has finally been funded, but that doesn’t mean the town’s causeway troubles are over.
Like the primary causeway, another, smaller causeway linking the island of Sunshine to the rest of Deer Isle is at risk of failing. But this one is owned by the town, rather than the state, so work on it will have to be funded by local taxpayers or grant funds.
Already narrow and lacking guardrails, it’s been damaged by sea level rise and storms that at one point left gaping holes beneath the asphalt. Residents and a seasonal craft school would be stranded if it closed.
But Deer Isle also is trying to fund other time-sensitive multimillion-dollar projects, and is reluctant to borrow large sums of money and faces stiff competition for grant funding.
The vulnerability of the Sunshine Causeway is another example of how Maine communities are struggling with the high costs of critical local infrastructure projects amid rising prices and budgets, particularly in coastal towns.
“It’s a pretty thin thread that’s holding us, that’s creating our access here,” said Walter Kumiega, facilities director for the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on the island.
He’s been driving over the causeway regularly since 2004, first as a contractor and now a staff member, and watches it continue deteriorating as sea level visibly rises. Even on calm days, he said, water sometimes laps at the edge of the road.
Along with Haystack, which hosts visiting students and artists from May through October and drew 2,500 visitors in 2023, the village on Sunshine has a church, a campground, a few home-based businesses and several small lobster pounds — not much for resources if the road was cut off, Kumiega said.
Census data isn’t collected for the island itself, which is part of the town of Deer Isle, but its population is small and partly seasonal. That makes it a harder sell to get project funding, said Kumiega, who is also a former state representative of the town and neighboring islands.
“There’s not a lot of political sway out here to get funds to repair the causeway,” he said.
It was different for the Deer Isle Causeway, the only road connecting Deer Isle and Stonington to the mainland bridge. The road is owned by the state, which earlier this year got the $12 million in congressionally directed spending it needed to start a $22 million rebuild after years of local advocacy.
The road had been flooded and damaged by storms, and was under 18 inches of water during historic storms in January 2024. With the rebuild moving ahead, the town is now focusing on options for the Sunshine Causeway, which is its second-most vulnerable road, according to Town Manager Jim Fisher.
“That road is definitely priority number one, in terms of climate vulnerability,” he said.
More than flooding, he’s concerned about the causeway bed being undermined and becoming unstable. The town patches it, but those storms left empty sections under the asphalt big enough for someone to fit their arm through.
The road is narrow at 19.5 feet wide, according to Fisher, with no shoulders or guardrails. Two large trucks trying to pass can break off each other’s mirrors, and drivers who go off the road hit rocks that have seriously damaged vehicles.
A man was killed there in 2002 when he lost control of his car and went over the rocks on the edge of the causeway, according to BDN archives.
Fisher would like to see the road raised at least a few feet and widened several more; in his view, it would ideally be six feet wider, with each lane widened one foot and two-foot shoulders added. It may also make sense to raise the road along the ends to make a smooth transition. But, he added, it’s all money.
He doesn’t have a solid cost estimate yet, but expects construction alone to cost at least $2 million and potentially millions more. The town would also have to finalize professional engineering plans — University of Maine students drafted a redesign in 2024 — and get permitting, including to build on surrounding wetlands.
Deer Isle already may need to borrow millions for a new fire station soon, and Fisher can’t imagine borrowing millions more.
“As long as [the causeway] hasn’t completely failed, we’ll limp along while I continue to try to come up with some funding,” he said.
In Sunshine, residents try not to think about the precarious road too much day to day, according to Kumiega, but losing it would be a “nightmare.”
He’s written to the town himself asking them to look into replacement, and knows a resident near the causeway who has asked for guardrails. On the other hand, Sunshine Road is narrower and more winding than the main causeway, so there’s less traffic and cars tend to go slower, he noted; it’s also somewhat less exposed to the elements.
If the road did close, Haystack would likely have to as well, at least temporarily, he said, though extreme weather events tend to happen in the winter when classes aren’t in session. He also expects the causeway will be a challenge to fund.
“There’s nobody around here that thinks the causeway can last for another … whatever timeline you choose,” he said. “I think it’s an accepted fact that we need to do something.”
