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Town eyes engineering firm for Love Lane traffic study, looks to have a ‘shovel-ready’ plan completed by year’s end

An evaluation of traffic patterns and movements in and around the intersection of Love Lane, Main Road and Old Sound Avenue in Mattituck will cost about $22,000, Southold town engineers told the Town Board during today’s work session.

The engineering department put out a request for proposals for the study and Dunn Engineering came in lowest, at $21,900.

Dunn’s proposal was “very comprehensive,” engineer Michael Collins said. “They are very familiar with the intersection. They’ve dealt with it before for the state.”

Southold will look to share the cost with the state and county, as per a conversation that took place among Town Supervisor Scott Russell, Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo and County Legislator Al Krupski at a March 19 community meeting organized by the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association.

“Usually the lion’s share in such an arrangement is paid by the state,” Russell said. “We’d look to see the state pay for half and split the remaining half between the county and town,” he said.

“But this will cost much less than I thought,” the supervisor added, so even it it’s the reverse, I think we could find the money.”

Engineer Jamie Richter said the state Department of Transportation already has a lot of data that the consultants can rely on for the study and that helped keep the cost estimate down.

Russell said he wanted the board to review the proposal so he can continue the conversation with the state and county representatives to strike an agreement so the town could engage the consultants.

Mary Eisenstein president of the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association said she took up Councilman Bill Ruland’s “brilliant idea” to create a “video diary” of the intersection and civic members have compiled eight hours of video shot at the site. She asked when there will be an opportunity to present the video to the engineers.

“We’ll identify stakeholders and others we want them to talk to, including obviously the Mattituck-Laurel Civic,” Russell said.

There are two stakeholders meetings included in the proposal cost, Richter said.

The town engineers said they envision telling the consultants what they wanted them to look at and setting forth the town’s goals.

“We didn’t want to give them a narrow focus of just what we’re looking at. Maybe they will come up with something we never thought of,” Richter said.

About halfway through the process, the town will provide the engineering consultants with its own recommendations developed in the community meetings organized by the civic.

Russell said he believes he can have the funding piece worked out with Palumbo and Krupski in time to have the Town Board authorize the contract at its next meeting in two weeks.

The town doesn’t know how long the evaluation will take to complete, the supervisor said, but the Dunn Engineering “doesn’t let things languish.” Completion by the end of the year is “probably more than reasonable,” he said.

At the end of the day, what the town wants is a document that spells out “what it will take to make this intersection what we’re looking for,” Richter said, “a report that shows the preliminary design information and schematic drawings, along with construction estimates — so when funding becomes available this will be a shovel-ready project. That will help us get funding so we can actually be do the work.”

“Thank you so much,” Eisenstein told the board. “The community is so excited and the video diary is just smashing — no pun intended,” she said.

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Denise Civiletti
Denise is a veteran local reporter and editor, an attorney and former Riverhead Town councilwoman. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including a “writer of the year” award from the N.Y. Press Association in 2015. She is a founder, owner and co-publisher of this website.