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For the third time in less than two years, a hunk of dock fell into New Bedford Harbor on Wednesday afternoon, again raising red flags about neglected port maintenance. The collapse injured no one but dropped a metal shed into the water.
The asphalt-surface dock and the shed dropped into about 20 feet of water late Wednesday afternoon outside the Sea Watch International processing plant along Antonio Costa Avenue, said Gordon Carr, executive director of the New Bedford Port Authority.
He said it happened when no one was around, at about 3:30 p.m. The sunken storage shed had stood in an area that had been blocked by Jersey barriers since a neighboring section of the dock collapsed a year ago.
Carr said there was a “small sheen” on the water Wednesday, but it was not clear what, if anything, was in the shed and if anything spilled into the water.
“There’s a boom out there now to contain” any possible contamination, he said, referring to a long, floating tube used to corral spills of oil and other substances on the water. He said representatives of Sea Watch, a clam and quahog operation that uses that pier to unload catch, were trying to figure out what was in the shed.
Lt. Tobia Brewer of the Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in New Bedford said an investigation is ongoing. “The boom appears to be working” to contain any spill, Brewer said.
The collapsed pier, which had been supported by concrete pilings, stood between two sections of the dock that fell into the water in separate incidents in October 2023 and April 2024. The stretch of three properties runs about 400 to 450 feet, Carr said.
“Our job is to identify a long-term solution to that aging infrastructure,” Carr said on Thursday morning, shortly before heading into a meeting with Sea Watch representatives.
Carr made a similar statement after a section of pier collapsed in April 2024 in an area where Eastern Fisheries docks scallop boats. No one was hurt in that incident, either.
In October 2023, though, four people fell into the water and two were treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life threatening when a section of the pier that was under repair at the time split from the dock and fell into the harbor.
The properties in the two previous incidents are owned by a real estate company owned by executives of Eastern Fisheries. The property that collapsed on Wednesday is owned by the city. It’s part of a parcel, just over an acre, that’s been under a 99-year lease to Sea Watch since 1981 at the rate of $3,960 a year, Carr said.
The effort to maintain the Sea Watch property has been complicated by a “disagreement about who is responsible,” for repairs, Carr said Thursday. “We’re continuing those discussions.”
Contacted by The Light on Thursday, Sea Watch plant manager Chris Saucier declined to comment.
Carr said it’s not clear what caused the collapse on Wednesday. He said there’s no quick fix, nor local resources, to complete lasting repairs for portions of the port showing their age.
“It really is a longer term state or federal grant process to rebuild the bulkhead,” he said, referring to the vertical wall at the water’s edge that supports the pier.
Early in 2018, the city started offering waterfront properties for sale, according to previous reporting by The Light.
That year, the real estate company R.C.P. Realty, listing as manager Ronald Enoksen, the president of Eastern Fisheries, bought the two properties on either side of the piece that collapsed on Wednesday. The company bought 2.8 acres for $1.1 million and another 2.9 acres for $1 million.
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
I have a solution to this problem with the dock continuously collapsing—hire competent marine construction workers to do the job right, versus hiring the company with the cheapest bid! This means you might have to hire outside of New Bedford. My husband has worked in marine construction with a company based in Boston for over 40 years, and not one project that he’s worked on has collapsed.
Three strikes and you are out.
What is the New Bedford Port Authority?
What is the salary of Gordon Carr, the Executive Director of the New Bedford Port Authority?
Why a 99 year lease to a private corporation from the City of New Bedford at $3,960 per year since 1981?
Read the lease concerning repair responsibilities. If not directly addressed, the owner of the property (the City of New Bedford) is responsible for repairs and probably damages related to business disruption.