Towns: Cost to fix roads after Suffolk County storm could top $20M
Barriers block off flood damage Wednesday on Old Northport Road and Meadow Lane in Smithtown. Credit: Neil Miller
Repairs to Brookhaven and Smithtown roads, bridges and other infrastructure damaged or destroyed in the recent storm could top $20 million by the time the final bill is tallied, town officials said Wednesday.
Damage estimates remain incomplete for the storm, which caught much of Long Island by surprise with its strength, dumping more than 9 inches of rain on Suffolk County's North Shore between Aug. 18 and 19 and leaving behind a trail of condemned homes, broken dams and flooded roadways.
Brookhaven highway officials said the town has estimated $16.5 million in damage to public roads alone, but that number is expected to increase when engineering reports are finished. Meanwhile, said Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro, the wait continues for state and federal emergency aid.
"With the amount of damage we sustained, it’s very difficult for local municipalities to absorb these types of large repairs in our budgets," Losquadro said Wednesday. "This is where we really need those federal and state safety nets."
WHAT TO KNOW
- Repairs to Suffolk roads, bridges and other infrastructure wiped out in the recent storm could top $20 million.
- Brookhaven highway officials said the town has estimated $16.5 million in damage to public roads alone.
- In Smithtown, officials with the highway department put the total need at about $4 million so far to fix roads.
Meeting FEMA threshold
Town officials Wednesday also continued investigating Brookhaven’s 1,300 storm basins and sumps, some of which sustained damage.
In Smithtown, officials with the highway department put the total need at about $4 million so far to fix town roads. On some roads in Smithtown and St. James, galvanized storm sewer pipes collapsed and no longer drain.
Combined with $22 million in damage estimated so far at Stony Brook University, and other county and town locations, the total cost could surpass the $37.5 million threshold set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make a major disaster declaration and release funds for effected homeowners and infrastructure.
"Now we just need to get to the point where we make submissions to FEMA to get individual projects approved," Losquadro said.
Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine has said total damage could top $100 million, from Rocky Point and other North Shore towns and communities, to more inland locations like Commack and Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown.
Suffolk officials said there were at least 2,441 reports of damage to roads and dams in the county. Another 72 homes sustained major damage, officials said.
The county had no date for when damage estimates would be submitted to FEMA.
Flooded state roads
New York transportation officials said they were also continuing to calculate damage from flooding that closed Route 25A and other state roads immediately after the storm. Another state review later found no new damage.
About half of Brookhaven Town's damage estimate is based on the $8.5 million needed to fix a collapsed section of Harbor Road near the Stony Brook Grist Mill, officials said. The road was washed away when floodwaters breached and emptied the burst Mill Pond dam.
The dam, which was originally constructed along with the Grist Mill, has flooded three previous times — in 1750, when the mill had to be rebuilt, again in the 1820s and after significant damage in 1910.
Losquadro said the town and the village of Head of the Harbor will now work to rebuild the road and dam with state and federal officials, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The completed dam will include new features to prevent what happened earlier this month, including new, lower spillways — updated with more modern materials — needed to manage water and potentially empty a flooded pond in an emergency, Losquadro said.
Upgraded spillways
"That structure that ultimately failed was 114 years old. So the spillway that water ran through was made of stone and mortar," Losquadro said. "The new structure will need to have a precast spillway, to convey larger volumes of water, and any new structure requires an additional spillway at the bottom, in the event of an emergency ... The original spillway was never designed to completely empty the pond."
Additional flood damage, primarily because of affected storm and sewer pipes, was also found in Smithtown at Meadow and Gardiner roads and in St. James on the residential street Overton Pass.
Smithtown highway officials said the private Mill Creek Road in Head of the Harbor Village "has continued to deteriorate since the storm washed away 450 feet of it, cutting access off to seven homeowners."
Highway officials said they are surveying plans for an emergency access road on private property and an electrical easement, with plans to hopefully start construction by next week.
Workers are surveying damage while also trying to stay ahead of future storms, Smithtown Highway Superintendent Robert Murphy said.
"We’re hoping the weather doesn’t get worse. You never know with these storms," Murphy said. "On Monday night, there was more flooding, and it was so saturated that a lot of these catch basins can’t take more water. Hopefully we get a few days of dry conditions."
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.
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