A long-awaited analysis by the United States Army Corps of Engineers which studied projects aimed to mitigate flood hazards along the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake rivers has been submitted to the village. The cost of the projects altogether, according to the report, would total more than $72 million.
According to the report, projects included in the plan will center on modifying the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake rivers in a number of ways, including the widening, lengthening and deepening of some of the tributaries’ channels to allow a greater flow into the Mamaroneck Harbor.
Village Manager Richard Slingerland said those projects would help the village in many ways.
The cost of the project would be split between both federal and nonfederal sources; approximately $45 million from federal sources and the other $24 million from nonfederal sources; namely, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Westchester County.
Both the county and local governments have requested federal aid for such projects since the 1970s when two floods—one in 1972 and another in 1975—caused significant damage to the village of Mamaroneck and surrounding area. The two events, according to the report, caused $18 million and $92 million in inflation-adjusted damage, respectively.
Despite the approval of the plan, which addressed such issues by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1989, the project was eventually stalled due to cost concerns from nonfederal partners, according to the study.
According to the most recent report submitted by the Army Corps, the effort have funded a number of large-scale projects to help mitigate flood damage, including the construction of a 7,500-foot retaining wall—about 21 football fields worth—and the replacement of several bridges in the area.
Interest in the project was renewed in 2007, after two serious flood events resulted in a Presidential Disaster Declaration which ultimately necessitated the assistance of FEMA.
Now, according to Mayor Norman Rosenblum, a Republican, the project has a better shot than ever of actually coming to fruition; one particularly encouraging aspect of the recent proposal is that it costs $30 million less than its last iteration.
“I’m pleased that we are able to come to reality and have a realistic program that we could see in the future happening,” he said.
One major change is that, as opposed to dredging the Mamaroneck River in its entirety, the newest proposal would only dredge and widen the channel from the river’s mouth in Mamaroneck Harbor to the Barry Avenue Bridge.
The rest of the homes located north of the bridge, which are in a flood hazard zone, would be raised to avoid any flood damage, the mayor said.
