Stony Clove Creek stabilization project

Daily Freeman story: Ashokan Watershed program completes Stony Clove Creek stabilization project

The Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program completed a project to stabilize 1.5 acres of slumping hillslope bordering the Stony Clove Creek along state Route 214 and Wright Road.

[Wright Road is in Lanesville]

The project cost $1,237,162 to complete. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection provided the town of Hunter with a 25 percent local cost-share to match federal dollars from the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program. The federal funding covered the remaining 75 percent of the cost.

Project Manager Adam Doan of the Ulster County Soil & Water Conservation District said there was a “surprising amount of groundwater moving through the hillslope. The stabilization was started after project managers saw the soggy slope moving over time toward the stream channel. Geotechnical engineers called to the site determined the problem would only get worse if not corrected.

Approximately 13 landowners benefitted from two years of work at the site to stabilize the channel and hillslope. The projects were designed to reduce the amount of fine sediment and coarse material eroding downstream where they might deposit and destabilize channels, or pollute New York City’s drinking water supply.

Reopening of Route 28 bridge in Shandaken pushed back to mid-November

An unexpected problem amid the replacement of a Route 28 bridge over the Esopus Creek in the town of Shandaken have moved the anticipated reopening of the span from Oct. 7 to sometime in mid-November, according to the town supervisor.

Rob Stanley said he was told of the new target date for completion by the state Department of Transportation.

The project began in April. So far, two of three new concrete abutments have been positioned, and steel has been laid over the top of them. But construction of the third abutment, on the west side of the creek, has been held up, Stanley said.

When excavators dug down, it was discovered a shelf of bedrock on which the abutment was to sit on wasn’t exactly where expected.

It was only a few feet away, but that meant that the abutment, under the original plan, would be sitting on soft ground instead of solid rock unless changes were made. So design engineers were called in to rethink the plan and devise a new one that takes into account the real location of the rock shelf.

The result was a delay of several weeks.

When completed, the new bridge on Route 28, near the intersection with Route 42, will be longer, wider and higher than the old one and will eliminate a rail crossing where development of a recreational trail is planned.

The old bridge was 233 feet long and 33 feet wide. The new span will be 293 feet long and 40 feet wide, and the road will be 8 feet higher above the creek than the old bridge.

The anticipated traffic volume is 2,600 vehicles per day.


The posted detour for Route 28 drivers includes Route 42, Creekside Drive and Firehouse Road.

Shandaken Town Hall move could help settle debt to NYC environmental department

Daily Freeman story dated September 14, 2016:

Plans for a new town office complex are taking shape, and a fringe benefit of the project is the town could be off the hook for $70,000 it owes to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.


The complex, which is to be on land set aside for a Phoenicia sewer project that voters rejected, would house the town’s government offices and highway and ambulance departments.

Before voters rejected the sewer project, the town used more than $70,000 of Department of Environmental Protection money to buy the property. The department asked for its money back after the project failed at the polls.

Shandaken Supervisor Rob Stanley said the town has tried to sell the land but has been unsuccessful, and now the city department is demanding payment, sale or no sale.

But thanks to the Catskill Watershed Corp., which provides funding to relocate municipal buildings out of floodways, the town could be able to both keep the land — which is on Route 28 in the hamlet of Phoenicia, just east of the Phoenicia Plaza — and pay back the New York City department.

The current town office complex is on Route 28 in the hamlet of Allaben, on land within the Esopus Creek floodway.

The Town Board on Monday agreed to file a funding application with the Catskill Watershed Corp. If the application is approved, the town will use the money to pay back the Department of Environmental Protection.

Asked what would happen if the funding is approved but the town office move fails to materialize, Stanley said it would be better to owe money to the Catskill Watershed Corp. than the Department of Environmental Protection.

New dividing weir gates in place at Ashokan Reservoir

Story in Daily Freeman



OLIVEBRIDGE >> The Ashokan Reservoir’s dividing weir has been restored to full functionality with the replacement of four large cast-iron gates that control the flow of water between the reservoir’s two basins, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection said Friday.