Breakwater Project

The Breakwater project is a long-term resiliency pursuit to create a more protected harbor that will better serve the people and businesses that call Monhegan home. Details on this page are provided to give insight into the process from past efforts to ongoing and future work.

Concept Designs

Thanks to grant funds from the Community Resilience Partnership, the Plantation is currently (Spring 2026) working with a team of engineers on a project phase that will result in initial concept designs for future Breakwater resiliency work. This project period consists of a wave modeling study of Monhegan Harbor, draft development of concept designs, and a regulatory review memorandum. This contract period concludes on May 14, 2026, and the final report was delivered to the Plantation on May 11, 2026.

This report includes project background, site conditions, results of the wave modeling study, breakwater concept designs, a regulatory memorandum, and recommendations for future resiliency work. In the Appendix, the engineering team included the presentation of the wave modeling study as well as the detailed concept design drawings. This report is linked below:

Monhegan Breakwater Resiliency Study Technical Report

January 2024 Storm Repairs

Army Corps of Engineers Study

In early 2025, the Plantation submitted a request to the Army Corps of Engineers to initiate a navigation improvement study under the Section 107 authority. This procedure involves an initial appraisal by the Army Corps to determine if there is federal interest in the project, largely based on economic factors. If there is deemed to be federal interest, the work would proceed to a feasibility study involving a cost-sharing agreement between the Plantation and the Army Corps. If the feasibility study produces a solution that is economically, environmentally, and locally viable, the Army Corps will then create plans and specification for, as well as manage construction of, the determined project, again on a cost-sharing basis.

The Plantation has submitted the initial request for appraisal and is awaiting notice from Army Corps of their decision. As information becomes available, this webpage will be updated.