EverythingWestport - Westport in brief February 9, 2014

Westport in Brief!

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Thursday, February 06, 2014

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Quick Article Index . . .

East Beach Road just can’t catch a break.

Letter to the Editor – Cukie Macomber.

East Beach Road just can’t catch a break.

The evacuation route road, deemed impassable, is closed for the winter.

Selectmen decides to pave East Beach Road with a 2 ½ top layer of asphalt in the spring. Job put out to bid coupled with paving Beach Avenue at the same time.

EverythingWestport.com

Friday, January 31, 2014

Westport’s East Beach Road just can’t catch a break.

After being pummeled over the years by violent storms like Sandy, Irene, Bob, Carol and other tempests too numerous to mention, the seashore road, deemed an evacuation route by the state, has had to suffer the indignity of losing its protective shoreline, drastically eroded by what some now say are shifting replenishment sand patterns caused by the Gooseberry causeway.

(Click here to read Cukie Macomber’s Letter to the Editor about Gooseberry causeway.

Is East Beach Road on its last legs?

To add insult to injury, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has nixed the building of an ‘armored revetment’, a stone wall of sorts similar to hundreds as seen across the country, saying the DEP advocates against changing or altering the natural shoreline system in order to stabilize it.

So, the town’s Selectmen and the Highway Department kept repairing the battered road, spending good money after bad, moving it further north a few yards at a time after each storm takes another bite out of the road bed.

Recently, a major effort to resurface the bumpy, cobbled, sandy and barely passable road turned sour when wet weather followed by freezing conditions during installation of an aggregate mix of gravel burrow and Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) turned the new roadway surface into a mushy washboard pocked with potholes.

Now the road is closed for the winter.

Westport Selectmen very unhappy with recent work done at East Beach Road.

At their meeting on January 13th, Selectmen called in Tibbets Engineering Corporation (TEC), the town’s engineering liaison, and a representative of I.W. Harding Construction of West Bridgewater to sort out what happened.

As a result of that meeting Selectmen voted 3-1 (Vice-Chairman Richard Spirlet voted no; Selectman R. Michael Sullivan was absent) to withhold $6,325 of the $87,887.02 owed I.W. Harding for the resurfacing of the storm-plagued road.

Inset: The conversion was politely strained between (from left to right) Westport Town Administrator Jack Healey, TEC construction supervisor George Mello, TEC Lab Director Chris White, and I.W. Harding representative David Stahley.

TEC representative Chris White told the Board of Selectmen that they emailed I.W. Harding and instructed them not to put down the road RAP mix if it was wet.

“The top layer was not properly installed.” - TEC Lab Director, Chris White

“We properly installed the top layer.” - I.W. Harding representative David Stahley.

I.W. Harding Project Manager David Stahley took immediate exception and said his company raised, regraded and finished the roadway properly, and the town never questioned the work within the allowable 15 day period after completion. Stahley said the town was “in violation of Massachusetts general contract law,” and “would hear from their attorney.”

According to TEC construction supervisor, George Mello, the road deteriorated shortly after finish-grading due to the freezing of moisture contained in the RAP mix.

“If you go over the optimum moisture content in the (RAP) material, you can’t properly compact it,” said TEC Lab Director, Chris White.

White questioned whether the stockpiles of RAP mix at LAL Construction’s Tiverton location, the vendor who supplied the product, were covered from the recent rain.

“We’re being asked to pay a bill for work done to a road we can’t use.” - Board of Selectmen Chairman, Antone Vieira.

Stahley denied the mix was wet when his company applied the top coat to the road.

“The frost level was about six inches; we couldn’t perform final compaction tests to certify completion,” Mello told Selectmen.

That delay in final testing caused the town to miss its 15 day certification period with I.W. Harding.

Mello said that, unfortunately, “there was a very narrow window of dry weather in which the work could be done,” and further claimed the RAP mix was probably wet when laid down. The time frame was determined to be after the hurricane season but before temperatures dropped below freezing.

“We were hoping for two mild weeks in December,” Mello said. “They (I.W. Harding) were told they were proceeding at their own risk.”

Mello said all parties decided to take the risk of challenging the weather window “to save the town money.”

“We all knew the risks,” Mello said.

“I took a lot of heat why you’re not really rushing to get that road done after the last two years of storm damage.” – Selectman Richard Spirlet

The gamble didn’t pay off, and rain coupled with below freezing, nighttime temperatures created a 6-inch frost layer, producing ruts and potholes as the frost melted from the top down during the day.

“There are reports of freezing and thawing conditions breaking up roads everywhere, and those roads are paved,” said White.

Stahley reminded the town that the contract for East Beach Road repair was “work specific” and not “performance specific,” and that payment was based on the final condition of the road when completed.

Stahley also said he’s never seen RAP mix used as a road’s final surface, that in his experience the roads were immediately finish-paved with traditional asphalt.

DEP prohibited the use of recycled concrete in the RAP mix.

“DEP wouldn’t allow us to use reclaimed concrete material,” White said. “We would have liked to use a mix of 25 percent reclaimed asphalt, 25 percent concrete material and 50 percent gravel burrow for best drainage and compaction.

The reclaimed concrete would have added stability to the road’s surface.

The town was initially told they could not repave the road’s surface with traditional asphalt, a statement that has since been refuted.

The town also couldn’t obtain a list from TEC Engineering of other roads in the area graded with RAP, despite multiple requests.

Selectmen left to sort out conflicting versions of East Beach Road repair.

“They didn’t install the roadway properly,” TEC Lab Director Chris White said.

“There is no moisture data to prove that, and there are no compaction tests to prove that,” I.W. Harding’s Dave Stahley replied.

“The contractor is responsible for the compaction testing,” White said.

Stahley disagreed saying the contract was clear that testing was the responsibility of the engineering firm.

Left to sort out all the conflicting claims, Selectmen voted to pay the bulk of the money, retaining the 5 percent suggested by TEC until acceptable finish grading was completed by I.W. Harding sometime in the early spring.

“You’re receiving most of the money,” Vieira told Stahley.

“We all need to work together,” Vieira added.

Does that include the weather?

Selectmen vote to put paving work out to bid.

At their January 27th meeting, Selectmen voted unanimously to put out to bid paving a section of Beach Avenue and applying a 2.5-inch blacktop cover over the recent work at East Beach Road, once that work is completed in the spring.

The town received $350,000 in FEMA/MEMA monies for the repair of East Beach Road; the town’s share in the repair was to be a little over $100,000.

Some of the money has been used in maintaining the road since the destruction caused by tropical storm Irene on August 28, 2011.

Fortunately, there’s money left over to fund the paving.

“This will eliminate the need to periodically regrade the road (due to mild storms,) and eliminate dust issues in the summer,” Vieira said.

12/12/2013 – East Beach Road under repair. More than two years after tropical storm Irene wreaked havoc on East Beach - in some spots as much as 50 feet of shoreline were lost and 750’ of paved road was destroyed - repair crews are finally putting the embattled coastal road back together again.

If it remains, remains to be seen.

Click here to read about the August 2011 destruction of East Beach Road with photos.

Right: despite the bitter winter weather, construction of the new roadway surface is underway.

“We would have preferred a seawall or rock revetment armor to protect the road,” Westport Selectman Richard Spirlet said. “But the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) shot down those ideas.”

I. W. Harding Construction out of W. Bridgewater was given the nod to rebuild the roadway’s surface.

The temporary gravel road was bumpy, slowing traffic to a crawl, was a danger to motorcycles and bicyclists, and created a hardship for the Bayside Restaurant and summer trailer residents.

Selectmen worked with Tibbetts Engineering Corp. for a more permanent solution, but were thwarted by MassDEP which advocates that barrier beaches and shorelines are a dynamic natural system and should not be altered by permanent structures.

Instead the over 1000 feet of washed-out road will be repaired with a modified, reclaimed asphalt material and gravel borrow road surface.

The road grade will be raised by 1.5 feet, and the reclaimed asphalt surface will be 18 inches thick.

“Construction is underway and should be finished by the end of next week,” Town Administrator Jack Healey told Selectmen at this week’s Monday meeting.

Above: tropical storm Irene wreaked havoc on East Beach Road, August, 2011.

Letter to the Editor

Monday, January 27, 2014

To the editor:

I have no opinion on the matter of Gooseberry causeway. I do know some history about the area.

As teenagers, my father and Lee Stevens worked during school vacations for cousin Everett Dunham (Dunham’s Hill and Brook). In early spring, Dad and Lee went with a horse and wagon across the Gooseberry Bar to get loads of seaweed which was used on the fields. They could cross at half ebb tide and return at half flood tide. High tide would be too high up on the horse. Dad said that he got the horse headed and then let him go and that animal would feel his way across.

In 1922, the causeway was built from Horseneck to Gooseberry Island by the Massachusetts Department of Public Works. Storms always messed up the roadway surface and in 1943 the federal government rebuilt the roadway with more rip-rap on the sides. That work was done to support the submarine observation facility. A heavy copper cable ran from Gooseberry to Cuttyhunk and could detect anything going into Buzzards Bay.

East Beach once had mansions and great lawns where today there is barely room for A trailer. I believe that some areas have lost over 150 feet of upland.

Part of West Beach has lost even more. Before 1938 there were five cottages at the west end. My uncle had one next door to the Howe cottage where President Roosevelt visited. Those cottages were set back about 100 feet into the dune area. The highest dune on Horseneck was west of the cottages, right on the point at Boat Beach. Visibility was measured in miles from the top. A few years ago a friend asked me to go to that area and see pipes in the surf. They were well points used by the cottages for water and near them was a fireplace base. I believe that about 300 feet of dune line has gone to Lion’s Tongue Sand Bar.

Before 1938, the breakwater was about three feet above high water. After 1938, it became hardly visible. The Army Engineers over the years have suggested that the breakwater be restored and lengthened.

In 1887, a jetty was built from dune line to low water mark at what was called Horseneck Point. In 1891 the jetty was extended to 145 feet. In 1924 the jetty was extended to a length of 315 feet.

(Editor’s note: the wooden and stone jetty, or “sandcatch” as the old timers called it, was knocked over by the Hurricane of ’38.)

I have a lot more info about dredging but that’s for another time.

Cukie Macomber

Westport

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