It’s deja vu all over again for the Menemsha channel federal dredging project.
J-Way, the contractor that was fired by the Army Corps of Engineers after failing to finish dredging the channel last winter, has been rehired by the Corps to do it right the second time. The Corps says the rehiring is in “the best interest of the government.” Let’s hope it is also in the best interest of the Island.
The project, which dates to 2014, involves pumping out some sixty thousand cubic yards of sand from the channel and using much of it to restore Lobsterville Beach, which was heavily damaged in Hurricane Sandy.
To be sure, the justification by the Army Corps for the two-plus-million-dollar project — to ensure that the channel is deep enough to accommodate boats seeking refuge from a storm — was never universally embraced. The Chilmark selectmen, worried that it would only increase recreational boat traffic in Menemsha Pond, opposed the project, although officials from Aquinnah and the Wampanoag tribe, which has its own natural resources department, took a more favorable view.
The project itself presented some logistical challenges. There is a relatively short window — after the fishing derby and before the winter flounder spawn — when work on the channel can be done. J-Way, the low bidder on the project, was thrown off schedule from the start last fall when a hurricane in the south delayed its moving dredge equipment up from Georgia. Later, the contractor wanted to extend his deadline, dismissing the winter flounder migration as a non-issue.
But timing and weather will always be a factor in public works projects, and what galled up-Islanders was not just that only a quarter of the dredging was completed by the Jan. 31 deadline, but that the contractor left a big mess behind. As winter turned into spring, abandoned equipment including a mile and a half of pipeline posed a hazard and an eyesore along Lobsterville and West Basin roads. J-Way claimed that removing equipment simply to bring it back in the fall would be too expensive; the Corps complained of lack of responsiveness by J-Way to that and other reported damage. In early May, the Corps canceled J-Way’s contract. By summertime, the equipment was finally gone.
Now J-Way is back. In an email to the Gazette this week, a spokesman for the Army Corps acknowledged that remobilizing the removed equipment will add costs to the already expensive project, but said the availability of J-Way and their understanding of the work to be done still made them the best choice. And the Corps has promised to put a quality assurance representative on the site, something it probably should have done the first time around.
In the best of worlds, the quality of work will be judged by more than engineering standards and will include sensitivity to local concerns. With closer oversight, perhaps J-Way can complete the project this time, on schedule and with minimal disruption.
We’ll wait and see.
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