VIDEO: Jetty closed for bridge repairs

Long overdue repairs have closed one of the town’s most popular (and inexpensive) attractions at the height of the tourist season.

The Plymouth Harbor Breakwater, the 3,500-foot jetty that arcs into the middle of the harbor, closed last Thursday while contractors restore the access bridge.

Cousins Contracting of Watertown started replacing planking and railings on the nearly 40-year-old bridge for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last Thursday. Workers at the site said the repair project would close the jetty for at least three weeks and possibly longer.

The news comes as a shock to many who use the jetty for fishing and exercise.

The three-quarter mile walk is popular with tourists and locals alike. Many make the walk a part of their daily exercise ritual. Others enjoy fishing from the jetty.

The bridge spans a small channel at the base of the jetty that allows smaller boats to maneuver out of the inner harbor without having to motor all the way around the breakwater.

The bridge’s supports are considered structurally sound, but the planks and railings are in undisputed need of repair. Several holes have opened in the wooden decking and the railings are rusting away.

The new planking and railings will be built entirely with marine grade pressure-treated wood, like nearby State Pier.

But while most visitors would likely agree the repairs are needed, many question the construction schedule.

“This time of year?” Bernie Tesmer of Marlboro asked, incredulously, as he bought bait for his grandsons at Cherry’s Bait Shop Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Tesmer’s wife, Mary, said.

The couple have been fishing with their children and grandchildren at the breakwater since the 1970s and found it hard to believe work was starting in August.

Anne Carafoli, whose family has owned Cherry’s Bait Shop on Town Wharf since 1963, remembers when the Army Corps of Engineers built the breakwater in the late 1960s. Her father, the late Cherry Carafoli, drove his family out to the tip of the jetty on the road dump trucks used to deposit the breakwater’s massive boulders just before the jetty opened. Generations of visitors have used the breakwater for fishing ever since.

In August, when striped bass are running, the fishing is especially good. There’s mackerel, flounder, dogfish and crabs to be had as well.

“What am I going to do? Where am I going to send the 100 to 200 people who come looking to fish on the weekend?” Carafoli asked.

“They could have picked a better time to do this. It’s tourist season,” Diana Benson said while visiting the bait shop Tuesday. “They should have done it in November, when the fishing season is over. It’s striper season. Everybody’s fishing for stripers and they can’t fish from the breakwater any more. They’ve got to go to the beach, which is hard to fish from because it’s full of people. Someone’s going to get hurt by a hook down at the beach.”

Carafoli said she has begun sending fishermen to nearby piers to fish.

Fishing is allowed from both Town Pier, which houses the harbormaster’s office, and State Pier, home of Mayflower II.

Assistant Harbormaster Rich Furtado said fishing from the piers is allowed, but access is limited and boaters have the right of way.

Fishermen are expected to take in their lines when boats approach. Fishing is not allowed off floats connected to the piers. Parking restrictions are also strictly enforced.

But while the timing of the project is clearly not ideal, the need for the repairs is very real, Furtado said.

The town has been trying to get the government to repair the bridge for “a long, long time,” he said. Two planks had to be completely replaced before Cousins Contracting could even start the project. Other existing planks still show large holes and gouges.

Joey Ambrifi and Derek Faria of Cousins Contracting said the Army Corps contracted with them for the job and set the work schedule. Army Corps officials could not be reached for comment on the project.

Carafoli worried that the three-week project could quickly expand into a months-long fiasco, like the restoration of the Plymouth Rock portico that lasted a year.

Some have already tried to circumvent the construction. Even though the contractors erect barriers closing the bridge when they leave for the night, one boy tried to swim across last weekend and a woman talked of getting across using bungie cords, Carafoli said.

“It’s just a bad time of year,” she added.