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Mill Dam advisory: expect delay
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|  | | By Arlene Gross | | |
June 11, 2008 | 04:48 PM
Drivers who want to cross from one end of Centerport to another will have to continue going around via Route 25A a little longer than they had expected, because the Mill Dam Causeway is not scheduled to reopen until the end of June.
The total cost of the project will come to $2.24 million, the town's director of engineering services, Patricia DelCol, said.
Originally slated for a late May reopening, the Mill Dam Road bridge and causeway were shut down after a section of the causeway caved in last fall.
In a May 20 letter from the Town Board, Centerport residents were advised that "the road was in poorer condition than we initially anticipated as a result, in part, of the extensive use of heavy equipment during the county's bridge reconstruction project."
According to the letter, the project entailed additional design work for a 65-foot section on the northwest side and an 85-foot section on the southeast side, along with approvals from three regulatory agencies: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state Department of Environmental Conservation and state Department of State.
In addition to the delay caused by the redesign and permitting process, the town had to address community concerns and objections to a guard rail that the state
Department of Transportation required.
Once resolved, the town had to appropriate an additional $157,000 to install a timber-backed steel rail, which the DOT now requires for bridges. The new upgraded railing met with approval by both community members and the DOT.
DelCol indicated that the project is in its final phases.
"We have poured the concrete," she said. "They poured concrete top walls; they are in the process of readying the roadbed for pouring; they're going to pour concrete, put an asphalt overlay. The rails have been shipped to the site and they're ready to begin installation. So, it's actually wrapping up over the next couple of weeks."
Gloria Wertheimer, president of the Centerport Harbor Civic Association, said she has heard that some people are upset about the delayed reopening.
"I get calls. They keep asking me, as if I know anything more than the letter tells them," said Wertheimer, who lives on Prospect Road. "We have three weeks left. I don't see how they're going to get everything done."
But DelCol expressed confidence in the town's new timetable. "We're on target for the end of June," DelCol said. "June 30 is the date we're holding to."
"We're mindful of Centerport's Camp Alvernia opening shortly thereafter and we're working toward getting the causeway open for that camp opening as well," she added. "We'd like to alleviate any congestion on 25A, which we're sure to have."
Brother Larry Makofske, of Camp Alvernia, agreed that the roadway's reopening would help alleviate traffic jams along Route 25A.
"It's not just our cars bunching up at 4 o'clock or 4:30," Makofske later said. "It's also the time that Centerport beach is letting out, [in addition to] the confluence of backup from Prospect, without being able to go around. When the bridge is open, at least half the traffic goes toward Huntington."
Makofske added, "We're hopeful that the bridge people can meet their schedule because of the increased traffic these days coming from both camp and the beach at the end of Little Neck Road."
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