CUMBERLAND — With pilings to support the structure to be installed early next month, a new pier at Broad Cove Reserve is still expected to open next Memorial Day.

Staging for the pilings is up at the site, where the original pier was demolished in late August. Pilings are scheduled to be delivered and pounded in around Jan. 3, 2019, depending on weather, Assistant Town Manager Chris Bolduc said Dec. 20.

Prock Marine Co. is building the new pier at its Rockland headquarters and will float it to Cumberland in the spring.

“The game plan is for it all to be in place by the first or second week in May,” Bolduc said. “And by Memorial Day, we should have a pier.”

Most of the 80-foot gangway has been built, and the floats and float moorings are under construction.

The Town Council in July unanimously accepted a $552,000 bid from Prock to demolish and dispose of the existing pier, and build its replacement. Prock presented the lowest of five bids.

The council that February had approved a license agreement for the pier, although the other party in the project – 179 Foreside Road LLC, representing the 10-member homeowners association at 179 Foreside Road – has yet to sign off on the deal.

Town Manager Bill Shane has said that he and the association continue to discuss the agreement. The group has until March 2020 to do so, if it wants to secure its own moorings and mooring fields, separate from those used by the public.

The town and 179 Foreside Road parcels together once comprised the approximately 100-acre Payson property.

The town’s piece, which it purchased in 2014 from Portland developer Bateman Partners to provide beach access and other uses by the public, includes 2,200 feet of shoreline and the former 200-foot pier. Bateman developed the homes that neighbor the public parcel, and the town in December 2015 signed a memorandum of understanding with 179 Foreside Road for a replacement pier.

The pier’s cost is covered by $200,000 contributed by the state’s Small Harbor Improvements Program and $150,000 from 179 Foreside Road. Of the remaining $232,000, $202,000 comes from the town’s Broad Cove Reserve fund and open land acquisition reserves, and the remaining $30,000 contingency comes from land acquisition reserves.

Bateman paid the town the share owed by 179 Foreside Road, which the company was due to do regardless of whether the homeowners approved the agreement, Shane has said.

While the former pier had steps leading up from the shore, its replacement will have a ramp to improve accessibility. The new structure is to extend out about 170 feet, connecting to an 80-foot ramp leading down to the floats. It will be 6 feet wide, or 2 feet wider than the current structure.

The existing pier was built for personal use, with a limited remaining life. Former Coastal Waters Commission Chairman Lew Incze in 2015 estimated the structure could last another five years, barring no major storms or icing.

But a storm in October 2017 forced the town to close the pier due to concerns about its structural deck support system. Officials eyed temporary repairs at the time, but another major storm this January moved the pier enough to require a permanent closure.

Alex Lear can be reached at 780-9085 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

Staging is in place for the pilings, due to be installed next month, which will support a new pier at Broad Cove Reserve in Cumberland.

Construction of the Broad Cove pier is underway at Prock Marine’s Rockland headquarters.