$2.5M Mattituck Inlet dredging runs $300K over budget
A couple of months after a long-awaited dredging project at Mattituck Inlet was completed, numbers show the project ran about $300,000 over budget, costing $2.5 million in total.
According to the office of Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), the overrun stemmed largely from the project running two weeks over schedule.
At the time, the extension was attributed to the need for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which completed the project, to dredge the inlet deeper than previously anticipated. Engineers had expected to dredge the inlet 11 feet deep in order to haul 100,000 cubic yards of sand to re-nourish nearby beaches, though they had to dig down to 14 feet.
In total, corps engineers removed over 108,000 cubic yards of from the inlet, with 98,251 cubic yards of that sand was placed on the easterly side to restore the sand-starved beach, according Mr. Bishop’s office.
“There simply was not enough material in the inlet at the depth and width they had previously been authorized to do,” Mr. Bishop said in early March.
Despite the excess costs, the project — spearheaded by Ron and Doris McGreevey, whose beach had been eroding over the years and had been calling for the dredge work for over a decade — was still a much-needed success, Mr. Bishop said.
“The inlet will be easier to navigate and the beach will have been built up to a level that better protects coastal assets and recreational opportunities,” Mr. Bishop said. “Further, we will now have an established project from which to work should the beach need repair in the future.”
