Construction on the Leeds Pond culvert under North Plandome Road will most likely begin in the summer, Plandome Manor Mayor Barbara Donno said at a meeting of the Council of Greater Manhasset Civic Associations last Wednesday.
Asked by council President Richard Bentley if the project was “moving along,” Donno replied, “Sure.”
“They haven’t started anything, and they’re not going to start,” Donno said. “Now [the contractor is] telling us July 1.”
Town of North Hempstead spokeswoman Carole Trottere confirmed the date.
“In the majority of these projects, you don’t know what conditions you’re going to get in the winter so it’s preferable to begin in the summer,” Trottere said.
Donno mentioned complications concerning the sheetrock that Oyster Bay-based contractor Woodstock Construction Group would have to use for the repair, which looks to correct cracks in the culvert as water overflow becomes more prevalent from freshwater Leeds Pond into saltwater Manhasset Bay.
The culvert, built in 1954 and maintained by the Town of North Hempstead, was originally supposed to have repairs starting last summer, and has been the subject of questions since 2014.
In 2016 then-State Sen. Jack Martins obtained a $1.5 million appropriation for the project, with a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation announced by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Sept. 23 of the same year.
