Working to complete repairs at the East Island Bridge Tidal Gates

The idea is to get at least one set in each covert potentially functioning so that we can control the water.”

Ann Fangmann, IDA and CDA director

About the East Island Bridge Tidal Gates project

•Tidal gates: There are three sets of coverts with multiple tidal gates within each of them, making roughly 12 tidal gates. The tidal gates, which control the inflow and outflow of water between the Long Island Sound and Dosoris Pond, have been inactive for over a decade. Without being able to control the flow of water, the city is not able to control the consistency of water levels overtime and a storm event could cause a surge of water that floods the area. Dosoris Pond is a manmade pond and the tidal gates are a component of this pond.

•Bridge: A number of restorations have to be made on the East Island bridge, including the removal of stones on the very bottom of the bridge.

•Water quality and green infrastructure: In order to get funding for this project from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the city had to put in place components of the project that would improve water quality and put in place green infrastructure. As part of this project, Dosoris Pond water will be cleaned up and nitrogen, phosphorus and other pollutants will be removed. About one acre of green infrastructure improvements will be put in place. Three rain gardens, which is a garden of native shrubs, perennials and flowers planted in a small depression in order to hold and soak in rainwater runoff that flows from roods, driveways, patios and lawns, will be installed. One will be designated for Pryibil Beach. Shoreline restoration and plug plants are also designated for Pryibil Beach.

There are repairs that need to be made on the East Island Bridge Tidal Gates and the City of Glen Cove is hoping to get it done by 2021.

The project is budgeted at roughly $820,000 and should be partially funded by an approximately $695,160 grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. In order to receive grant money from the DEC, the project needs to include green infrastructure and water quality improvement, Ann Fangmann, the Glen Cove Industrial Development Agency and Community Development Agency director said.

“The city has an existing agreement with Lockwood, Kessler & Bartlett Inc., what’s called LKB just to be short, in an amount not to exceed $180,000 for professional designs as well as other services for the East Island bridge, tidal gates and so forth, which is funded in part by the New York state DEC and other permitting agencies,” City of Glen Cove Attorney Gregory Kalnitsky explained at Tuesday night’s Pre-Council meeting. “LKB prepared all the bidding documents and permitting documents that were ultimately accepted by the DEC, as well as all other agencies. The project was let out and three bids were received and opened on Dec. 30 of 2020.”

The problem was, Kalnitsky explained, the lowest bidder was pricing the project higher then it was budgeted for. Ultimately, Fangmann and the Department of Public Works Director Louis Saulino decided that in order to get the project done, they had to re-bid.

“That’s why we need LKB’s help,” Fangmann said. “We need their help to take a look at the scope that was approved with the DEC, hopefully make some modifications that we can get the price down to an amount that we can afford right now with the borrow that was done and with what the city has previously committed to the project.”

Aspects of the project will be reviewed by the city’s hired engineers in order to get the price down on the project. For example, Fangmann said, it could be possible to have one set of tidal gates in a covert operating and controlling the water without having every tidal gate within coverts operate simultaneously.

“The idea is to get at least one set in each covert potentially functioning so that we can control the water,” Fangmann said. “It’s just taking a look at those various scope items and trying to improve upon it and also cut some costs.”

Even with the pandemic and other mitigating factors, Fangmann said she remains hopeful that this project will be finished in 2021.

The Glen Cove City Council will vote at the Jan. 12 council meeting on the $16,000 change order from LKB to re-bid the project in order to get a lower bid.

Fangmann said the plans and bidding documents would have to be modified.

“We will need to go through a re-bid process, which will involve another engineer’s evaluation, so this just goes way beyond their scope of work that had been approved,” she added. “[Saulino] and I felt that the price that came in to do this re-bidding effort was really quite modest, all things considered.”