Overhauling a roadway and the A.B. Bridge

Some village residents want more work done

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It’s easy to see how Ocean Boulevard, in Atlantic Beach, got its name. Running the length of the village, the street provides access to the ocean and the boardwalk.

Because it is lined with beach clubs, Ocean Boulevard is heavily traveled during the summer, which has led to its deterioration. To repair the potholes, resurface the roadway, improve drainage, add a bicycle lane and relocate parking from the shoulder to the center median, the village borrowed $3 million for a project that is nearly completed.

“Our top priority was addressing drainage concerns,” Mayor George Pappas said, “but we also wanted to work on beautification and smoothing the road as well.”

“Before it was like asking for a blowout on your tire every time you drove on it,” said resident Nancy Rowe, who travels Ocean Boulevard every day.

Pappas said he believed the roadwork would be finished this month.

“It looks great now, but it’s been a real pain,” Rowe said. “I’ll be happy in two weeks when it’s all done.”

A few residents said they were concerned that if the construction were not completed by July Fourth, holiday crowds could create problems on the street. As it is, the switch to center-median parking has reduced parking on Ocean by eight spaces, though there have been no complaints thus far.

“It would get a little hectic with all the cars,” said Bob McCormick, an Oceanside resident who works as a valet at The Shores, one of the beach club along the road, “but it’s easier and safer this way.”

Susan Sapodin, who lives on Ithaca Avenue, right off Ocean, said that the roadwork near her street was done quickly, but she wishes there had been more. “It was just a couple of days,” she said, “but they only did half of our beach entrance, while they completely redid others.”

Rowe said she was pleased that the work was done, but unhappy that Ocean Boulevard was allowed to deteriorate to the point that it needed such an overhaul. “It’s the most beautiful place in the world to live,” she said of Atlantic Beach, “but it really was insanity.”

Refurbishing the bridge

The Atlantic Beach Bridge is currently in the midst of a three-phase project. Phase One involved replacing electrical and mechanical mechanisms, and has been completed.

Phase Two is the replacement of the bridge’s grid decking. According to Vincent Grasso, executive director of the Nassau County Bridge Authority, while not all of the repairs will be completed until mid-January, all of the work that is visible to drivers and pedestrians will be finished by mid-October.

The first two phases will cost a total of $12 million. “But of that, only $2 million came from municipal bonds,” Grasso explained. “The rest came from the tolls.”

The third phase will focus on the tollbooths, and has yet to be finalized. Grasso said that the original plan was to replace the manned booths with cameras, but he has heard that some residents want to keep the booths. He added that the issue would be addressed in the future, and that there is no timetable for Phase Three, and no cost has been discussed.

The bridge authority is also working on two projects that are being financed by grant money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The bridge’s transformers are being raised, and floodwalls are being built behind the bridge authority headquarters to protect the emergency generator from damage in a future storm. The estimated cost of the work is $304,645, Grasso said. So far, the authority has received $149,276 from FEMA; the rest will be reimbursed when the work is completed.

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