[2022, Dunlap]
[2022, Dunlap]
Updated on 26 July 2026 | The four floating finger piers on the north side of MacMillan Wharf — where up to 40 commercial vessels can moor, including almost the entire lobster fleet — had long been subject to storm damage. But the walloping they took in the winter storms of 2013 was so bad that repairs qualified for a $3.4 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It was literally a disaster. One more bad nor’easter, and the piers would be lost, the harbormaster, Rex McKinsey, and the pier manager, Doug Boulanger, told Paul Benson of The Provincetown Independent.1
The $4.6 million repair project included a 600-foot-long wave attenuator made up of 60-foot concrete segments riding on three-foot-diameter pilings. “Each 60-foot segment is six feet tall and 15 feet wide, and weighs more than 20 tons,” Benson wrote. “This height and heft will reflect and dissipate wave energy away from MacMillan Pier.” Work began in October 2019 with the arrival of the segments on barges. It was declared complete in January 2020, one month ahead of schedule.2
1 “Huge Wave Attenuator Is Installed in Provincetown Harbor,” by Paul Benson, The Provincetown Independent, 24 October 2019.
2 “Wave Breaker Completed at Provincetown Pier,” by Alex Darus, Provincetown Banner, 26 January 2020.