East Hampton Town has entered into a project partnership agreement with the federal Army Corps of Engineers for long-planned improvements to the navigational channel in Montauk Harbor. Those improvements, a deepening and widening of the channel, are at present scheduled for the fall of 2023.
The plan is to increase the depth of the channel from 12 to 17 feet at mean low water and extend by 100 feet the deposition basin, which a Planning Department official described to the town board in August as “the safety zone next to the navigable inlet itself.”
This dredging, Brian Frank of the Planning Department told the board, “is going to produce a lot more sand initially — almost 174,000 cubic yards of material.” That sand, he said, will remain in the littoral system, bolstering beaches along Soundview Drive and Capt. Kidd’s Path.
The inlet to Lake Montauk is used by as many as 500 vessels per day in the summer, and Lake Montauk is home to New York State’s largest commercial fishing fleet, which landed almost $20 million worth of fish between 2012 and 2017. Coast Guard vessels travel from the base on Star Island into Block Island Sound and beyond via the inlet.
For at least 70 years, the navigation channel has featured a 12-foot depth and 150-foot width. In August, Mr. Frank told the board about safety concerns in recent years, including an increase of groundings, even of unladen vessels.
The federal government is responsible for the cost of maintaining the inlet, including the improvements slated for next fall and future maintenance projects. The town also has obligations, Mr. Frank said, including 10 percent of the construction costs, or around $727,400.
Representative Lee Zeldin announced last Thursday that advertising of the construction contract is expected to happen early in the summer of 2023 and the deepening is expected to be completed by the end of that year.
