ORLEANS — The wharf renovation on the Orleans side of Rock Harbor that was expected to be completed by early May won’t be finished before the summer boating season begins, according to Harbormaster Nate Sears.
The delay is mainly because work was slowed by this past winter’s cold, Sears said. “You’re limited to a certain amount of time to do this work,” he said, and during the winter, “Rock Harbor takes punishing north winds and ice.”
Still, Sears expects the harbor to be “substantially functional” by June 13, when the town’s contractor, Stoughton-based Coastal Marine Construction, will put the project on hold so as not to interfere with the harbor’s busiest season.
At that point, Sears said, a new bulkhead and fuel lines will have been installed, boats will be in their proper berths, and Young’s Fish Market, which is in the commercial wharf’s parking lot, will be able to open for the season.
The new bulkhead is 20 feet back from the old one, opening up space so that fishing boats will no longer need to tie up side-by-side along the bulkhead. Now, vessels will be able to back into their berths along the floating dock.
Sears said the town also had to move the commercial wharf’s underground gasoline and diesel tanks, which posed an environmental risk. That was a separate project from the current improvements. Above-ground tanks were installed in spring 2024, but the town didn’t put in a new dispenser or fuel lines at that time, anticipating that the current project would go forward. Those lines are being installed now.
What won’t be finished for this summer is the harbor’s new 5,420-square-foot dock for offloading commercial catch. Sears said that dock is now expected to be finished sometime this fall.
The dock is the centerpiece of a project meant to revitalize the part of the harbor used by commercial fishermen — something Sears said was overlooked for years while the town focused on its use for recreational fishing. It will extend from Rock Harbor Road past Young’s Market and jut out about 10 feet past the redone bulkhead. Sears said it will be built with preformed 13-foot-square sections of concrete, which will be fitted onto a series of posts already standing at the water’s edge. “Like Legos,” said Sears.
A jib crane will be installed for fishermen to hoist their catches off their decks.
Winter Woes
During the winter, Sears said, commercial vessels had to leave the harbor to make room for construction, “which was pretty standard anyway,” he said, to avoid ice damage. Some took their boats to Wellfleet or Dennis for the winter, he said.
One such boat was the F/V Lady Irene, owned by Chris Viprino, manager of Rock Harbor Shellfish Company. Viprino moved the boat to Wellfleet for the winter to get out of the way of the bulkhead reconstruction in Orleans. It was destroyed in an April 3 fire that also disabled Wellfleet’s wooden L-pier.
Many of the town’s commercial boats are docked in the recreational section of the harbor for now but will need to move back to the commercial area once the seasonal recreational boats arrive. The town has made accommodations for fishing vessels in the commercial part of the harbor, installing a temporary gangway so fishermen can still access their boats during construction.
Investing in the ‘Blue Economy’
Townspeople voted for an override to fund the $9-million project at the Orleans town meeting in the spring of 2024. Some relief came in the form of a $1-million grant in December 2024 from the Seaport Economic Council, a division of the Mass. Office of Economic Development with a mission to “deepen the maritime economy,” according to the department’s website.
Sears said the seeds of the improvements at Rock Harbor go back to 2018, when the town deemed the offloading dock unsafe and in need of replacement. “It’s been an incredibly long road,” he said, but to him the town’s investment on the commercial side represents a vote for “the blue economy,” which, he added, “is the economy of the town.”
Orleans Dept. of Public Works and Natural Resources Director Rich Waldo said the bulkhead was close to a hundred years old and had a weight restriction that prevented heavy machinery from reaching all of the harbor’s facilities.
Work underway now puts in view one delay that was not caused by the weather. Crews are working to install new electrical systems to provide proper lighting and power for boats that use the harbor. Orchestrating a new configuration of the power supply coming off the road resulted in an Eversource pole having to be moved from one side of the street to the other.
As of the most recent update posted on the town’s website, there still isn’t a set date for the pole’s relocation. A temporary overhead electrical system will have to serve boats during the summer, with the permanent one getting installed when construction resumes in the fall, Sears said.
The commercial wharf’s parking lot will be gravel for the summer but is projected to be paved in the fall.
A public viewing area is also planned near the future offloading dock, with a designated section cordoned off so visitors can watch the catch get unloaded. Work is slated to begin again around Oct. 12. Sears said there will probably be a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the spring of 2026.
Waldo said the response from fishermen has been largely positive, and that they’ve been working with his department to find new homes for their vessels, but, he said, “I think they’re looking forward to getting back in their slips.”
