Why is the busiest new public landing on Stage Harbor closed in the first week of oyster season? Since Monday, September 21, the Town Landing at 90 Bridge Street has been shut to the public, including the float docks and the parking lot. Town Hall has given no reopening date, saying only that the closure "will remain in effect for the duration of the construction activities." The Army Corps of Engineers dredge that was due the same day has also moved to "late October."
Taken one at a time, these look like ordinary fall harbor problems. Taken together, they are the last stretch of a single project that started years ago. The town is spending close to $12 million to keep Stage Harbor working for shellfish, fishing boats and recreational boaters. The inconvenience this fall is the final phase before that work is supposed to pay off.
What the fence at 90 Bridge Street is protecting
The building behind the construction fence is the historic Chatham Coast Guard Station boathouse. For more than 70 years it stood on Stage Island as a base for the station's small rescue boats. The most famous was the CG36500, the boat from the 1952 Pendleton rescue later told in "The Finest Hours." The boathouse was evicted from Stage Island in 2009 and barged to temporary quarters on the South Shore. In spring 2026 it was lifted from a barge onto a new pier at 90 Bridge Street while a small crowd watched.
The building did not come back as a museum. Its new job is to house the town's shellfish upweller, the tanks where the Shellfish Department grows seed shellfish. That operation now runs in what the Cape Cod Chronicle called cramped quarters at Old Mill Boat Yard. The original plan called for a new building on the pier. Preservationists proposed reusing the boathouse instead, and the project team took up the idea. Resident Jack Farrell and his friend David Doherty spent years saving the structure, with significant help from marine contractor Jay Cashman.
The site was planned in three phases. Phase One was dredging and bulkhead work. Phase Two added piers and floats for recreational and commercial boats. Phase Three, the one now underway, renovates the boathouse and installs the upweller. This explains why a landing that opened partly to the public over the spring and summer has closed again. In April, Natural Resources Director Greg Berman said the town "wanted the public to be able to use at least a portion of the site over the spring and summer," and that restrictions would continue on the upweller pier during the final phase. Summer use of the site was the planned break before this phase.
The money, and the pump decision that shapes the timeline
As of June 2026, the full Bridge Street project was estimated at about $11.9 million. That covers revetment, dredging, piers, docks, the boathouse and the upweller. About $3.8 million comes from state grants, and the rest from Community Preservation funds and waterfront infrastructure bonds. When Town Meeting voters approved the project in 2024, it was reported at about $11.03 million. The total grew by roughly $870,000 between the September 2024 report and the June 2026 estimate.
Robert B. Our Co. of Harwich holds the boathouse renovation contract at $2,199,747. Dura-Tech Industrial and Marine is supplying $510,055 in propagation equipment, including tanks, silos and a generator. The Select Board approved that contract in June, with funding to come from a state Food Security Infrastructure grant that had to be spent by July 1.
The seawater system that pumps harbor water into the grow-out tanks has been the hard part. The first round of bidding drew a single bid of more than $2 million. The second round came in lower, with Moving Waters, Inc. lowest at $1,063,100. Town counsel recommended rejecting that bid because of discrepancies in the bid documents. Town staff then chose to redesign the system rather than award it to the next bidder. The new design swaps a single land-based pump for several submersible pumps, much like the setup the Shellfish Department uses now. Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne described the change this way:
"It would really be replicated what we have now without the bells and whistles. It's just really how you get the water into the building that we're redesigning."
Select Board member Stuart Smith, the town's former harbormaster, supported the shift and called the original design "over-engineered." Berman said submersible pumps have shorter lead times, so the upweller should still be online in spring 2027 as planned. He also expected the savings to bring costs under the roughly $1.5 million left in the budget. That estimate dates from June. No public record from July through September shows a rebid or an award for the redesigned system, so spring 2027 remains the town's stated target rather than a confirmed date.
One more detail from that discussion shows the cost of running a working harbor. Gagne said annual pump maintenance tripled in cost after the New Bedford firm that serviced the pumps stopped doing the work and they had to go to a company in Boston. The department hopes to train its own staff to do the job.
Why the dredge matters to the same harbor
The upweller grows seed. The Murden keeps boats moving through the harbor's entrance. Both serve the same goal of keeping Stage Harbor usable.
The Corps' federal channel runs 2.1 miles from Chatham Roads past Harding Beach to upper Stage Harbor. It is authorized at 10 feet deep and 150 feet wide. Holding that depth has become a yearly job. A 2025 Chronicle report traced heavy shoaling to east-to-west currents that followed the 2017 South Beach breach, and said the Stage Harbor entrance has needed dredging every year.
The town's September 11 notice laid out the original plan. The Murden would work roughly 14 days and tie up nightly at the Trap Dock from about 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. The September 18 notice replaced the arrival date with "late October" and asked residents to stay tuned. The town has not posted a new date, and has not said whether the 14-day estimate or the Trap Dock overnight berth still applies.
Getting on the water while 90 Bridge is closed
The closure notice tells users to "make alternate arrangements for vessel operations," but it does not name a replacement landing or tie-up. The town's standing landing and ramp rules are the best guide for now:
- Barn Hill: the ramp is open to all users with a Waterways User Permit. The resident and taxpayer parking limit applies June 1 through September 15.
- Old Mill Boatyard: a Waterways User Permit is required. The ramp limit for residents, taxpayers and mooring permit holders applies June 1 through September 15. Nonresident single vehicles may park on the outgoing side of Stage Harbor Road.
The town has not designated either ramp as a substitute for 90 Bridge Street. Neither rule covers float docks or tie-up space. If the Murden does tie up at the Trap Dock overnight once it arrives, dock space near the harbor will be tighter for those two weeks.
The Stage Harbor calendar, October through spring
The shellfish seasons explain why the timing matters. Under Chatham's standing calendar, quahogs, clams and mussels are open year-round. Oysters run October 1 through April 30, and scallops November 1 through March 31. The weekly limit is 32 quarts in total, with no more than 12 quarts of any one species. Harvesting requires a town shellfish permit.
| Date | On Stage Harbor |
|---|---|
| September 21 | 90 Bridge Street landing, floats and parking close for Phase Three |
| October 1 | Recreational oyster season opens |
| Late October | Army Corps dredge Murden expected; exact date not yet posted |
| November 1 | Recreational scallop season opens |
| Spring 2027 | Town's target for the upweller to begin operating in the boathouse |
Openings also depend on water quality. Massachusetts ordered a precautionary statewide shellfish closure starting a half-hour before sunrise on Saturday, September 26, because of a coastal storm. At noon on September 28, the state returned specified growing areas to their status before the closure. Prohibited areas stayed closed. The town map notes that openings depend on testing, so check current status with the Shellfish Department before heading out with a rake.
Farrell described the next milestone in April. "We look forward to monitoring the transformation and celebrating the grand opening in spring 2027." Until then, the 90 Bridge floats stay closed, and the town has said it will announce the Murden's new arrival date.
For owners whose properties depend on Stage Harbor access, the timing of these projects can affect how a waterfront home is used, rented or presented to buyers. If you would like to talk through what this fall's harbor work means for your property, the team at Christie's International Real Estate Atlantic Brokerage is glad to help. Request a Private Market Consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
