In July 2024, local contractors rebuilt the washed-out section of Route 102A at Seawall between Southwest Harbor and Bass Harbor in five days. The road had been closed since winter. The Mount Desert Islander reported this fall that the repair "has served residents and visitors on Mount Desert Island to date with no issues."
That patch has now held for two years and three months. Since October 5, the state has been replacing it with something built to last. The work protects a stretch of shoreline the park lists as open all year, even after the campground across the road closes for winter.
From Washout to Patch to Rebuild
The road's last three years, in order:
- January 10 and 13, 2024. Back-to-back storms hit Acadia. Friends of Acadia reported scattered rock, downed trees and a washed-out road at Seawall Campground and Picnic Area. In a longer account, the group wrote that waves pushed the seawall inland and knocked out bog-walk on the Ship Harbor Trail, and that the January 10 surge reached four feet above average high tide.
- March 2024. Another storm with a very high tide added more damage, according to the Islander.
- July 2024. Local companies fixed the damaged section and the road reopened.
- May 2026. The Bangor Daily News reported that the permanent project's schedule was still being worked out and that cost estimates stood at $1.45 million.
- September 30, 2026. MaineDOT announced a closure of up to 28 days starting October 5, with work expected to be finished by October 30.
Charlotte Gill owns Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound and The Seawall Motel. In 2024 she was among the locals who brought food and drinks to the crews. She described that stretch to the Mount Desert Islander this way:
"When Seawall Road was left in pieces for five months, our local companies were heroes. They came together and put it back together in five days, and they did a remarkable job."
What the Permanent Version Adds
The 2024 job put the road back. The 2026 job is meant to keep it there. According to MaineDOT, the project runs 0.42 of a mile south from a point 0.07 of a mile south of Beaver Lodge Lane. It adds new gabion baskets, which are wire cages filled with stone, along the section closest to the ocean, plus a new reinforced concrete culvert designed with eel passage in mind.
The money changed between spring and fall. In May, the estimate was $1.45 million. The contract MaineDOT announced in September is $915,820, awarded to R F Jordan & Sons Construction of Ellsworth. The National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior are paying for it. That matters because the road runs through both Southwest Harbor and Acadia National Park land. At the September 22 Select Board meeting, Town Manager Karen Reddersen said, as reported by the Islander, "It's the first time that type of funding has been provided anywhere in the nation, so we're happy and grateful that they're doing the project."
The contract also has a deadline with teeth. The Islander reported that the special provisions charge the contractor $2,500 for each calendar day Route 102A stays closed to traffic past 28 days.
Why the Work Landed in October
The timing was negotiated. The Bar Harbor Story reported that Southwest Harbor asked MaineDOT to push the start back to October 13. By then the park's Seawall Campground and the fare-free Island Explorer bus would both have shut down for the season. The state kept October 5, so the first week of work fell in the campground's final week of the 2026 season, which ended at 10 a.m. on October 12. Acadia Deputy Superintendent Brandon Bies told the League of Towns the closure would mean a two-minute disruption to emergency response.
The detour adds about 8 miles and 16 minutes, according to Reddersen. Anyone driving between Southwest Harbor, Bass Harbor and Tremont pays that cost on every trip. Gill told the Islander, "Seawall Road is not just a roadway, it's a way of life."
MaineDOT expected the work to be finished by October 30. The town's paving notice, republished by the Bar Harbor Story on October 2, sets a longer outer limit. It lists October 5 through November 13, weather permitting, for "Seawall Road closed at S-curve," with paving dates to be set within that window. Before construction began, the Bar Harbor Story reported that one-way traffic was likely during paving and that weather could move the paving dates. The Town of Southwest Harbor posts project notices on its homepage.
The same town schedule also covered paving in the village. Shim and surface paving on Clark Point Road and Herrick Road, surfacing on Robinson Lane and Fernald Point Road, a new layer on the Clark Point Road sidewalk, and driveway lips on all four roads were planned between October 12 and a clean-up finish on October 27, weather permitting.
What Stays Open on the Other Side
Once the road is open, the campground is the one park operation on Seawall that stays closed. The rest of the stretch keeps going through winter.
| Spot along Route 102A | What it is | Park season listing |
|---|---|---|
| Seawall Picnic Area | Cobble beach shaped by storms, tidepools, walking along the seawall; across from the campground entrance | Year-round |
| Wonderland Trail | 1.4 miles round trip to rocky shoreline, with tidepools at low tide | Year-round |
| Ship Harbor Trail | 1.3-mile figure-eight past a quiet cove, with mudflats at low tide | Spring, summer, fall |
| Bass Harbor Head Light Station | Grounds and viewing areas open to visitors; the lighthouse building is not open to the public | No November closure listed |
| Seawall Campground | Park campground | Closed October 12, 2026 |
Two of these spots tie back to the 2024 storms. The cobble beach at the picnic area is, in the National Park Service's own description, shaped by powerful storms. The Ship Harbor bog-walk was one of the pieces the January 2024 waves knocked loose. The Wonderland and Ship Harbor trailheads are both reached by Route 102A, and the park notes on both trail pages that the road can close. The gabions and culvert going in this fall are what make that year-round listing something people can count on.
For more on how Southwest Harbor shifts after the summer crowds, see our earlier piece on what changes in Southwest Harbor after Labor Day. For the park side of the calendar, see Acadia's in-between weeks.
Steve and the team at Acadia Realty Team have watched Seawall go from washout to patch to rebuild, and we're glad to talk through how road work like this affects daily life and property in Southwest Harbor and Tremont. Let's Connect.
