As part of a $5,690,200 investment announced today by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo for ‘NY Works’ projects that will allow for 15 flood control system and dam repair projects in the Hudson Valley, Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli highlighted a $98,000 project announced for the Town of New Castle.
For years, flooding along the Saw Mill River Parkway has been the bane of our existence in Central Westchester, and has morphed from minor annoyance to serious safety hazard,” Castelli said. “The October Nor’easter and Hurricane Irene further demonstrated the inadequacy of our failing flood control infrastructure, and I applaud Governor Cuomo for making these infrastructure upgrades a centerpiece of this year’s budget, which will create jobs here in Westchester.”
According to Cuomo, the Budget which Castelli supported, continues their commitment to fiscal responsibility while creating jobs and strengthening communities across the state. It closes a multi-billion dollar deficit with no new taxes, fees or gimmicks, limits spending growth to two percent or below for the second year in a row, and launches the NY Works Task Force to invest billions of dollars to rebuild the state’s roads, bridges, parks, and other infrastructure and create tens of thousands of jobs.
“For the second year in a row, New York State has passed a transformative and balanced budget that holds the line on spending, while focusing on job creation and government efficiency,” Governor Cuomo said. “The centerpiece of this budget is the New York Works program, which will help rebuild our aging infrastructure, including our dams and flood control systems, to protect people and property throughout our state.”
NY Works is designed to reinvent state economic development with innovative new strategy that will put New Yorkers back to work rebuilding the state’s infrastructure. The Task Force will help create tens of thousands of jobs by coordinating comprehensive capital plans, overseeing investment in infrastructure projects, and accelerating hundreds of critical projects across the state.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) maintains 106 flood control projects, of which 91 have been rated “minimally acceptable” or “unacceptable” by the Army Corps of Engineers. Additionally, DEC owns 577 dams statewide. Of the DEC-owned dams, DEC engineers classify at least 24 dams as “high” and “intermediate” hazard structures, where failure poses serious threat to human life or significant property damage.
The New York Works Funds will designate $102 million, leveraging more than $100 million in matching funds, to repair aged and otherwise failing structures. The $102 million will include $18.5 million to repair state-owned dams, $56 million to perform maintenance of flood control facilities such as levees, and $27 million to implement coastal erosion and inlet navigation maintenance projects, plus over $100 million in matching funds.
In Chappaqua, for example, $98,000 has been announced to fund the mapping, and surveying of a flood control project on the Saw Mill River, where the river runs between the Saw Mill River Parkway and Washington Avenue. The funding also provides for the purchase of an access easement, which will allow for maintenance, and possible future improvements to the flood control project, which was built in 1982, deepened and widened a 30 foot channel, and built a retaining wall.
Additional state funding was announced for DEC flood control projects relating to the Saw Mill in Ardsley, for $109,200, in Mt. Pleasant, for $130,000, and in the City of Yonkers, for $67,000.
