|
|
|
I used to laugh, derisively, at the idea that there was a difference between white and, well, white.
The walls in my downstairs bathroom, I insisted, were not cream or ivory, not eggshell or vanilla, and certainly not “off-white.” They were white!
But then I visited the famous Duxbury Pier Light.
Restoring the restoration
My visit – almost an annual event for Old Colony reporters – was to examine and report on the work that is almost always underway at this historic structure, work required to counter the corrosive effects of 150 years of saltwater immersion, birds, bird-brained vandals and, well, time.
These efforts actually began almost 30 years ago, in 1983, when the Coast Guard announced it was going to dismantle the first offshore, cast iron, caisson lighthouse in the United States.
Since that time, the names have changed, volunteers have come and gone, and the work has expanded to include three separate structures. But, today, Project Gurnet and Bug Lights Inc. is more organized and effective than ever.
The group has successfully restored Gurnet Lighthouse, the old Coast Guard station on the Gurnet (which is now available for rent) and made many cosmetic and structural improvements to the Bug as well.
Slap a coat of paint on it!
After 30 years of varying degrees of interest and care of the “Bug,” it became apparent last year that the light once again needed to be scraped and repainted.
This time, though, Project Gurnet and Bug Light staff identified a local firm uniquely qualified to restore the original cast iron structure – and other structural elements as well.
There was one problem, however, that company wanted nothing to do with Bug Light.
Going Nuclear
Plymouth-based A&G Industrial Services is, according to co-owner Peter Krukiel, “expert in erosion and corrosion control, nondestructive examination and ultrasonic technology.”
These specialized skills, equipment and highly trained crews are often employed at nuclear power plants to assist with their “buried pipe programs,” in which they use nondestructive techniques that allow for ultrasonic examination.
A key to the company’s success, Krukiel said, is what he calls “certainty of outcome.” Some of the power companies generate revenues of up to a half-million dollars a day: Failure is not an option.
Along with that assurance of success, A&G is also able to deliver finished work that meets its clients “life cycle” needs: Simply put, whatever the initial cost of the project, its quality and ultimate durability makes it cost effective.
I used to laugh, derisively, at the idea that there was a difference between white and, well, white.
The walls in my downstairs bathroom, I insisted, were not cream or ivory, not eggshell or vanilla, and certainly not “off-white.” They were white!
But then I visited the famous Duxbury Pier Light.
Restoring the restoration
My visit – almost an annual event for Old Colony reporters – was to examine and report on the work that is almost always underway at this historic structure, work required to counter the corrosive effects of 150 years of saltwater immersion, birds, bird-brained vandals and, well, time.
These efforts actually began almost 30 years ago, in 1983, when the Coast Guard announced it was going to dismantle the first offshore, cast iron, caisson lighthouse in the United States.
Since that time, the names have changed, volunteers have come and gone, and the work has expanded to include three separate structures. But, today, Project Gurnet and Bug Lights Inc. is more organized and effective than ever.
The group has successfully restored Gurnet Lighthouse, the old Coast Guard station on the Gurnet (which is now available for rent) and made many cosmetic and structural improvements to the Bug as well.
Slap a coat of paint on it!
After 30 years of varying degrees of interest and care of the “Bug,” it became apparent last year that the light once again needed to be scraped and repainted.
This time, though, Project Gurnet and Bug Light staff identified a local firm uniquely qualified to restore the original cast iron structure – and other structural elements as well.
There was one problem, however, that company wanted nothing to do with Bug Light.
Going Nuclear
Plymouth-based A&G Industrial Services is, according to co-owner Peter Krukiel, “expert in erosion and corrosion control, nondestructive examination and ultrasonic technology.”
These specialized skills, equipment and highly trained crews are often employed at nuclear power plants to assist with their “buried pipe programs,” in which they use nondestructive techniques that allow for ultrasonic examination.
A key to the company’s success, Krukiel said, is what he calls “certainty of outcome.” Some of the power companies generate revenues of up to a half-million dollars a day: Failure is not an option.
Along with that assurance of success, A&G is also able to deliver finished work that meets its clients “life cycle” needs: Simply put, whatever the initial cost of the project, its quality and ultimate durability makes it cost effective.
That’s what A&G brought to the table and, at first glance, Krukiel thought the job outlined by Project Gurnet & Bug Lights was not a good fit.
“They didn’t, at least from our perspective, have a good plan. We couldn’t afford to lower our standards and, frankly, we couldn’t afford to do less,” Krukiel said.
Eventually, though, A&G took the job.
From a distance…
You can see Bug Light from almost every local shoreline. With a new coat of paint, it stands out against the deep blue water.
What you can’t see, though, (unless you talk with Peter Krukiel and get a chance to climb into the Bug itself), is the latest work on this Civil War-era technology.
It began with a plan that had to take into consideration the unusual location, the tides and the inclination of one employee to go fishing at the drop of a hat. (“Strictly forbidden in this case,” Krukiel said.)
It included transporting specialized vacuum-shrouded grinders – utilizing silicon carbon technology and high efficiency particle filters (HEPA) – that got down to the original cast iron, while efficiently sucking up the remnants of 150 years of paint chips and fine particles before they fell into the water.
“We really took a whack at it,” Krukiel said. “We didn’t want to leave anything, and just be adding another layer. So we took it down to what it was like when it was originally forged.”
When the surface was properly repaired to A&G’s standards, the crew began a three-coat process.
The first coat was a mio-aluminum primer, which is said to exhibit “tenacious adhesion characteristics to marginally prepared surfaces when compared with most industrial coatings.”
The second was a proprietary, moisture-cured polyurethane from Sherwin Williams called “CoraThane.” Then, a third layer, another coat of CoraThane, was added.
“There are a lot of challenges to every job we take on, and this was not an exception,” Krukiel said. “We don’t just come in and paint over surfaces.”
Up close, it just looked like a deep, lustrous red on the lower base of the structure and, up above, just a nice bright, call it nautical white.
But this was not just a nice white. This was a white that will withstand, will endure, will last for years – maybe as many as 15 – as winds scourge the surface with salt spray day in and day out, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Monumental
It probably takes twice as many people to maintain a historic structure as it did to construct it in the first place.
To preserve Bug Light has taken hundreds of volunteers, dozens of staff members, scores of events and fundraisers and, to date, close to a half-million dollars.
Scott Day, a longtime member of Project Gurnet and Bug Lights and my ride to the Light last week, said the organization owes a debt of gratitude to a long list of volunteers, contributors and officials who have kept both lights turned on.
“Some people have been supporting these efforts for nearly 30 years now,” Day said, “and others have stepped up big time for this effort.”
Volunteers renovated the old Coast Guard station on Gurnet, which provide the group with a regular revenue stream, earning the nonprofit potentially $25,000 or more a year. But that’s not enough.
Day particularly singled out Todd Hollingsworth, sales manager at Plymouth Taylor Rental, which donated all of the generators needed to do the ongoing restoration, and Dave Sylvia of Marine Systems, which transported the crews and equipment.
A beautiful day on the water
After about two hours, I was back on the dock, watching Scott Day pass under the bridge on the jetty on his way back to his home on the Gurnet. On the way out, I almost had to duck as we passed under that footbridge. As I watched Day motor away, I saw that he was in no danger – standing or not. The tide had dropped several feet since we had been out.
Once in my car, I rolled down all the windows to let the breeze in. I rested my arm in the window opening, but as I swung the wheel around to head north up Water Street and back to the office, I felt my elbow stick.
Looking down I saw a smear and – tilting my arm to take a peek – I confirmed I had a nice coat of paint on my elbow, a souvenir of my visit to the Bug, a souvenir I feared could be with me for quite a while.
“Don’t worry,” Peter Krukiel said the next morning. “The one thing that you have, that the cast iron surface does not, are oils. You won’t have that memento for more than a day or two more.”
I was almost disappointed. After all, it was not eggshell or parchment and definitely not off-white. It was an inimitable, unique, historic shade that I am certain can only be called “Bug White!”
For more information on Project Gurnet and Bug Lights Inc. or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit Buglight.org or write to: Project Gurnet & Bug Lights, Inc, P.O. Box 2167, Duxbury, MA 02331.
