Community Corner
Plans for Dredging In Old Lyme Ahead of Schedule
Old Lyme Harbor Commission moves ahead with phase 2 of plans to dredge channels in Black Hall and Four Mile Rivers.
Old Lyme Board of Selectmen gave approval last night to move ahead with the next phase of plans for dredging Black Hall and Four Mile Rivers.
Harbor Management Commission members Steve Ross and Ned Farman told the board that phase one of the three-phase project, a $19,000 study conducted by Coastline Consulting LLC., was complete.
At the Harbor Management Commission Meeting in June, David Provencher and Tim McCarthy of Coastline Consulting presented the results of their Old Lyme Navigable Waterways Study. They showed proposed channel widths and depths for the Black Hall and Four Mile Rivers and presented conceptual dredge plans for both rivers.
Highlights of the presentation, according to meeting minutes, were as follows:
- Black Hall River: Coastline Consulting suggested pivoting the upriver terminus of the inner channel north to take advantage of naturally deeper water and shifting select portions of the remaining inner channel west to take advantage naturally deeper water. The proposal is to widen the inner channel to 30 feet, progressing to 100 feet at the outer access channel.
- Four Mile River: Coastline Consulting proposed narrowing the width of the inner channel to 30 feet to contour inside the LPT lines and modifying the outer access channel to 60 feet wide.
Ross and Farman said these projects typically take about 10 years to complete, but they told the Board of Selectmen that the work Coastline has done in a year would normally take about three years, which puts the plan well ahead of schedule.
The Board of Selectman approved the Commission's request to retain Coastline to continue with phase two and three of the project in order "to move forward as fast as possible," said Farman. The project is already well ahead of schedule, he added, and Coastline's fee of $64,000 to complete the next two phases has been deemed reasonable by an outside consultant who vets bids.
First Selectman Bonnie Reemsnyder noted that it's fairly standard practice to retain the same consultant to continue with a project and that the $200,000 DOT grant that is being used to fund the first phases of the dredging project "is in the bank."
Harbor Commission Chairman Steve Ross said there will be some grant money left over when Coastline has completed its study and permit reviews, which will be applied to the actual dredging project. Moving ahead rapidly, he added, should enable the town to take advantage of currently available funding for waterways projects.
"It's our objective to complete this project without any money from Old Lyme," said Ross.
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