A Route 114 Repaving Delay
The long-awaited repaving of nearly eight miles of Route 114, which was scheduled to happen this year, will now begin in early 2022, according to the New York State Department of Transportation.
The D.O.T., which oversees Route 114, agreed last year to allocate $13.1 million to repave the road from where it intersects with Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton to the South Ferry terminal on North Haven, a stretch that has been in disrepair for years.
Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and then-State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle announced at the time that a design for the project would be finalized by the end of 2020 and work would take place in 2021.
“The contract for the State Route 114 resurfacing project between Stephen Hand’s Path and the South Ferry is currently being finalized,” Stephen Canzoneri, a D.O.T. spokesman, said on Friday. “We cannot comment further until that process has been completed, but we expect preliminary work to begin later this fall and resurfacing to begin in the spring of 2022.”
Shellfishing Stock Bolstered
As part of a state effort to improve water quality and bolster the shellfish population on Long Island, the Shinnecock Bay Sanctuary was restocked with 1.5 million clams on Oct. 13, the commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced last week.
The D.E.C. collaborated with the Southampton Town Trustees, Stony Brook University, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County on the project, and it is working with Stony Brook to monitor the health of shellfish in the sanctuary, and the impact they have on improving water quality.
Recent efforts to increase the shellfish population has provided an environmental and economic boon to the region, according to Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University. “We’ve seen hard clam densities in Shinnecock Bay increase dramatically, resulting in an increase in commercial landings of hard clams by 1,000 percent,” he said in a statement.
Shellfish filter nitrogen and phosphorous from the water, and their presence in the bay has led to “vanishing brown tides and marine algal blooms, improved water clarity, and more than 100 acres of eelgrass have regrown,” he said.
