Time Runs Short for Montauk Beach Project

A delay in reviewing bids on the Army Corps of Engineers’ multimillion-dollar project in downtown Montauk — a 3,100-foot-long reinforced dune made of 14,560 geotextile bags filled with sand — is likely to scuttle its spring start.

With time running short to complete the first phase of the work — placing the dune along a section of the downtown beach roughly from the Atlantic Terrace Motel east to South Edison Street — before the Memorial Day weekend, when East Hampton Town officials have said the work must be suspended for the tourist season, it appears that nothing will be done until the fall.

In an email sent last week to East Hampton Town’s natural resources director, Kim Shaw, Sue McCormick, an engineer with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the lead agency on the project in coordination with the Army Corps, said that if the bids were not opened this week she had been informed that there was “no way construction will happen this winter-spring,” and that it would be put off until fall.

“We’ve run out of time for the contractor to build the first 1,200 feet by Memorial Day,” Ms. McCormick wrote.

Christopher P. Gardner, a public affairs specialist with the Army Corps of Engineers, did not address a question regarding the timeline in an email this week. However, he said a bid opening has been tentatively scheduled for next week, pending resolution of several outstanding issues. In previous discussions, could be awarded two weeks after the bid opening.

A key element that must be in place before the Army Corps will proceed with reviewing contractors’ bids is a water quality certificate from the D.E.C. approving the project.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday he did not know why the permit has not been issued and that the matter is “between the D.E.C. and the Army Corps of Engineers.” Nonetheless, he has been talking with Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Representative Lee director, Peter Scully, to expedite the permit.

In her email to Ms. Shaw, Ms. Mc- Cormick said only that the certificate had not been issued “as we are waiting on some clarifications from the [Army] Corps.” The D.E.C. has not responded to inquiries about the permit. The agency has, however, heard from those opposed to the Army Corps project, who have raised questions about its compliance with coastal regulations and environmental impact.

In a letter sent Monday to Mr. Scully, Mike Bottini, an East Hampton resident and chairman of the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, outlined the organization’s opposition to the reinforced dune construction.

The dune will jeopardize the public beach by causing accelerated erosion, he said, citing concurring opinions by four prominent coastal geologists.

The project “is designed to protect private property at the expense of our public beach,” he said, and would “set a terrible precedent for the Town of East Hampton, whose economy is largely driven by its natural beaches.” “Since none of our town officials will stand up and call this proposal for what it is (in the words of Dr. [Robert] Young, ‘flawed,’ and ‘ill-conceived’), ” Mr. Bottini wrote, “we implore your agency to carefully examine the scientific and legal aspects of this proposal and deny the application.”

The other sticking points preventing the bid opening by the Army Corps, as listed in Ms. McCormick’s email, regard agreements with property owners for access to their land for construction staging areas, access to the beach by property owners over the dune that will be built, and drainage at South Edison Street and Lowenstein Court, where water runs onto the beach.

Those issues are not an impediment, in Mr. Cantwell’s view. They are, he charged, “an excuse by someone in power . . . as one of the reasons why the project may not start in time.” The real estate agreements have been obtained, he said yesterday. The state must have the staging areas approved by the Army Corps before that step is final, Ms. McCormick said in her email last week.

Mr. Cantwell said the town is working to resolve the drainage problems at the two locations, both in the eastern portion of the project area — the section where work is slated to begin in spring.

Should the drainage continue to present a problem, Mr. Cantwell suggested that the Army Corps could focus on another sector in its first construction phase. The agency had inquired if the town had a preference for which section should be built first, he said. “I’m assuming that means that there’s no reason they couldn’t start in one of the other sectors.” The Army Corps has said from the start that every beachfront property owner would be allowed a walkway over the dune to access the beach, Mr. Cantwell said, and in talks with the D.E.C. it has been determined that each would submit their own application to the state agency for a walkway permit, as is the norm.

But, Ms. McCormick said in her email to Ms. Shaw, the Army Corps has said that private walkways cannot be built if they call for driving piles into the geotextile sandbags. “This must be dealt with,” she said.

Also to be finalized are revisions requested by the town to the design of several public beach-access walkways called for in the plan.

Mr. Cantwell said that whether work begins this spring or must be put off, he believes it should go forward, despite questions about the effect of the sandbags on the beach, and whether the project complies with state and town coastal policy, which bans hard structures from the ocean beach.

“I do not view geotextile sandbags as a permanent hardening process,” he said. “When I first took office this project could have been a rock wall, which I opposed completely,” Mr. Cantwell said.

“If I had my preference, this would have been a $20 million beach fill project with a dredge pumping millions of cubic yards of sand on the beach. But we’re not being offered that.” The Army Corps has offered to do the reinforced dune project as an interim measure while plans for a larger beach reconstruction project are reviewed under the federal Fire Island to Montauk Point reformulation study.

“My concern all along with the fall is it’s a more difficult part of the year to do beach work,” Mr. Cantwell said.

With waters warmed over the summer months, and fish runs, more people use the beaches in the fall than in spring, he said. In addition, when fall comes, “you’re into the erosion season, generally speaking.” Throughout the fall and winter sand is normally lost from beaches, while in the spring and summer it accretes.

Previous coverage:

Town Ban Sidestepped by State, Corps on Montauk Plan