GOSR taking proposals for East Rockaway flood mitigation design

A request for proposals was sent out to a pre-qualified list of state-approved engineers to complete the design of a flood mitigation plan for East Rockaway and at Smith Pond in Rockville Centre under the Living With the Bay initiative.

“We’re actually out to procurement for those,” said Laura Munafo, the Nassau County representative for the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery.

The projects have had 30 percent of their designs completed under Tetra Tech, a California-based design firm tasked with developing plans for the Living With the Bay initiative. LWTB is an effort to make South Shore communities along Mill River — which runs from Hempstead Lake south to Hewlett Bay, just south of Bay Park — more resistant to future storms, and to improve the quality of life in those areas. Potential projects for LWTB encompass parts of Bay Park, East Rockaway, Hempstead, Lynbrook, Malverne, Oceanside and Rockville Centre.

Tetra Tech applied for the next round of design work, which would be completed in phases. According to Michael Bomar, the vice president of Tetra Tech, once the design is 60 percent complete, GOSR will begin receiving permits for the work, and then a public comment session for the projects would be held.

The East Rockaway project, which was on display for residents to view and ask questions about at East Rockaway Junior-Senior High School on April 24, would cost $7.2 million, which would be funded by GOSR. It would include bulkhead improvements, the installation of 12 backflow prevention devices to protect the school’s parking lot and sports fields from flooding and the installation of patches of greenery in the parking lot.

Further up Mill River at Lister Park, in Rockville Centre, the runoff water would be treated by bioswales, which are landscape elements that remove debris and pollution out of the water.

“We’re trying to minimize the effects to the wetlands,” Bomar said.

Other projects that were on display for East Rockaway residents included the Smith Pond Drainage Improvement Plan, which comprises dredging, installing a fish ladder to improve the pond habitat for fish and creating a new drive to access the Smith Pond spillway. According to the website for LWTB, invasive species are now taking up residence at the pond.

There was also a poster for the Greenway Project, which would add bicycle and pedestrian paths around Mill River. Originally, Bomar said, the project was ranked as a low-priority by Tetra Tech, but was included in GOSR’s funding because the members of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee wanted it. “The CAC is the avenue for the residents to provide input,” Bomar explained.

Bids for the Smith Pond design were due on April 25 and bids for the East Rockaway and Lister Park projects were due on May 3. The Citizen’s Advisory Committee is expected to meet over the summer to discuss plans for Hempstead Lake State Park.