Award or Recognition

Gay Head Lighthouse Project was Recently Featured in PBS Documentary

June 17, 2020

GEI Consultants, Inc., one of the nation’s leading technical consulting services firms, is pleased to announce the Gay Head Lighthouse project will be featured in a PBS documentary by Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth. The documentary will highlight how the residents of Martha’s Vineyard worked together in order to move the lighthouse inland to protect the structure from eroding cliffs.

The lighthouse was originally constructed in 1799 and reconstructed in 1856 after it was destroyed by fire. The lighthouse was a treasured landmark on Martha’s Vineyard long before it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Perched atop the Gay Head Cliffs on the western tip of the island, the lighthouse stood threatened by the receding cliffs. In 2013, the National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the lighthouse as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the country. Thanks to the efforts of community members and the team of experts who rallied to move the 465-ton, 159-year-old structure to safety, the lighthouse is no longer endangered.

GEI served as the geotechnical consultant for the Gay Head Lighthouse Relocation project. Our work contributed to the study of the eroding cliffs, the evaluation and ultimate selection of the new location for the lighthouse, the design and construction of the haul path and new foundation, and restoration of the site after completion of the move.

The documentary can be viewed here.

About GEI: GEI Consultants, Inc. is a consulting engineering firm that delivers professional services that improve our world’s built environment. With more than 900 staff and 42 offices in North America, GEI is a leader in providing multi-disciplined engineering and environmental services to a range of private and public sector clients, both domestically and abroad.

As an employee-owned firm, we foster personal relationships with our clients and support our staff in a partnership model, which is underpinned by continuous learning and sharing of knowledge. We retain proven, recognized experts and attract the best minds to deliver to our clients a refreshing blend of technical expertise, collaborative spirit, and innovation that is rare in our profession. We engineer solutions in five primary end markets: Water Resources, Energy, Buildings, Infrastructure, and Industrial. For more information on GEI, please visit www.geiconsultants.com.