Earth Support Corp

Penobscot CountyMaine

Carmel, Maine

Bedrock sits a median 10 ft down across 184 logs, shallower than the Maine median of 15 ft. 3 of its 14 inventoried bridges are rated poor (21%, against 15% statewide).

Median depth to bedrock

10 ft

middle half 5–23 ft · 184 logs

Bridges rated poor

3

of 14 inventoried

FEMA repair $, Penobscot County

$84.9M

federal share since 2010 · county-wide

01 · Ground

Rock is close to the surface: 53% of logs hit it within 10 ft

From 184 depth-to-rock records inside Carmel (Maine Geological Survey wells database). Logs cluster where people drill wells and bore for roads, so treat this as the town’s pattern, not a site answer.

Half of Carmel's logs reach rock between 5 and 23 ft

Depth to bedrock: 10th–90th percentile whisker, middle-half box, median tick; dashed line = Maine median.
median 10 ft
ME 15 ft
02040 ft
01020304050600–5 ft5–10 ft10–20 ft20–50 ft50–100 ft100+ ft
n = 184 logsSource: Maine Geological Survey wells database
▸ Show the numbers
Depth to rock (ft)Logs
0–534
5–1051
10–2044
20–5037
50–10018
100+0

Rock within 10 ft

53%

of logs (40% across Maine). Shallow rock means ledge in excavations, refusal for driven piles and rock anchors rather than soil nails; deep ground means taller shoring and more groundwater. 8% of logs here go past 50 ft.

02 · Bridges

3 of 14 bridges are rated poor — above the Maine rate of 15%

Every highway bridge and large culvert in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory that stands inside Carmel. Median age 63 years; 2 posted for weight.

21% good, 21% poor

FHWA good / fair / poor rating — the lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert.
  • Good3 · 21%
  • Fair8 · 57%
  • Poor3 · 21%
n = 14 structuresSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers
BuiltStructures
1920s1
1940s2
1950s1
1960s6
1970s1
2000s1
2010s2

The poor-rated bridges

Bridges rated poor in Carmel
CarriesOverBuiltDaily traffic
MAIN RDHARVEY BROOK19233,510
FULLER RDpostedHARVEY BROOK1963600
GRIST MILL RDpostedSOUADABSCOOK STRM197022
Every poor bridge in New England

03 · Dams & disasters

Penobscot County has drawn $84.9M in federal disaster repair since 2010

FEMA Public Assistance is reported by county, so the figure below is Penobscot County-wide context, not a Carmel number.

FEMA Public Assistance, Penobscot County

$84.9M

Federal share obligated across 255 projects in 4 declared disasters since 2010. The largest category is emergency protective measures (91%); roads & bridges took $1.1M.
Dams, disasters & moving ground

04 · Next door

Carmel and the 7 towns that border it

A dash means no data for that layer, not zero.
Carmel compared with neighbouring towns
TownPoor bridgesRock depth
Carmel, ME3 / 1410 ft
Hampden, ME4 / 2015 ft
Levant, ME1 / 714 ft
Hermon, ME0 / 514 ft
Etna, ME0 / 35 ft
Dixmont, ME0 / 210 ft
Newburgh, ME0 / 215 ft
Stetson, ME0 / 18 ft

Where these numbers come from

Method, sources & caveats

Carmel is the Census county subdivision 2301910670 (Penobscot County). Every record is placed here by its coordinates, not by the place name the source uses.

  • Towns are Census county subdivisions: cities, towns, plantations, and Maine/New Hampshire unorganized territories and townships. Every record is placed in a town by its coordinates (point-in-polygon), not by the source's own place label — so a bridge in Roxbury counts for Boston and a well in 'North Waltham' counts for Waltham.
  • Bridges: FHWA NBI 2025, highway structures ≥ 20 ft including large culverts. 'Poor' is FHWA's good/fair/poor rating (lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert ≤ 4). Percent-poor is shown only for towns with at least 5 structures.
  • Depth to bedrock is the median of driller- and boring-reported depths in the town, shown only where at least 10 logs exist. Water-well logs over-sample rural lots and hilltops; one town median never describes a particular site.
  • Bedrock depths use the same state databases and filters as the Bedrock & soils module (bedrock wells and borings that reached rock, 0 < depth ≤ 400 ft, exact re-filings dropped), but every log is placed in a town by its coordinates rather than the driller's town field, so town counts can differ slightly between the two pages. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no statewide public well-log database with depths.
  • Dams: only high-hazard-potential dams whose latest condition assessment is Poor or Unsatisfactory are counted (live NID). Connecticut and Rhode Island assessments may lag.
  • FEMA Public Assistance dollars are federal share obligated for disasters declared since 2010, reported by county — they are county context, not a town figure.
  • Grant awards are Massachusetts only (EEA Dam & Seawall program, MVP Action grants, CZM Coastal Resilience). Other states' programs are not yet included.
  • Ground-related permit counts cover only the municipal portals the pipeline reads (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, Framingham, Providence, Portsmouth, Hartford and a few others) — an absent count means 'not covered', not zero.
Data as of
Sep 11, 2026
Generated
Sep 11, 2026
Records
367,748
Refresh
Live pull · weekly

Published by Earth Support Corp as a public resource. Regional statistics for planning and curiosity. They are not an engineering report, a bid recommendation or a statement about any particular site, firm or project. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it. Full method: methodology.

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