Tisbury officials have indefinitely paused a plan to help mitigate flooding at Five Corners in Vineyard Haven due to state-level permitting requirements.
While the town is working with project partners to understand and respond to the new requirements, public works director Kirk Metell told The Times this week that the project is expected to spike over $150,000 from an estimated $40,000.
The town originally hoped to begin construction as early as this fall to avoid yet another winter of storms and flooding, though Metell says there is currently no timeline for the project.
With the new price estimated, the town is working with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to understand whether it can move forward with the project, and to consider asking other Vineyard towns to contribute funding.
In March, after three winter storms caused flooding damage around the Island and at Tisbury businesses, the town’s select board voted to move toward a partial solution in partnership with University of New Hampshire engineers.
Officials also moved ahead with the project due to frustrations around the progress of a more comprehensive Five Corners plan from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which Metell said on Monday could take at least 10 more years. This state plan would involve running an outfall pipe out into the Vineyard Haven Harbor.
“I know that many in our committees were quite disappointed with the design that the state put forward,” Grande said in March of the state’s plan.
The town’s partial solution, which Metell told the select board he hoped to install as early as this fall, was to combine three outfall pipes at the Beach Street Extension into a single structure. University of New Hampshire professor Jamie Houle told the board in March that this would help keep rising seas at bay and repair a “dilapidated” outfall system. The project would also add an emergency outlet to direct extreme flooding away from Five Corners.
Town administrator Jay Grande added at that meeting that the project had support from the commission’s joint transportation committee toward finding outside funding.
But this month, the town was notified of state permitting requirements, a much more complex process than initially expected.
“While we were working with the University of New Hampshire, they were pretty sure they could get around some issues because [the plan] was a simple repair,” Metell explained on Monday.
He said that the permitting issue could lie in whether the state determines the project to be a replacement rather than a repair.
“It was going to be a $40,000 job and is now well upwards of $150,000. I could’ve done the initial price out of my budget but I can’t absorb that now,” he said.
After talking to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, Metell added, Tisbury is interested in continuing the partial plan as an all-Island project, with funding from other Vineyard towns. He is also considering partnering with the Steamship Authority for use of their embarkation fund, due to Five Corners’ close proximity to the ferry terminal.
He still hopes the Department of Transportation will carry out their comprehensive plan, which will not be impacted by the outcome of the partial solution.
It’s unclear how quickly the project could come to fruition with the additional permitting; Metell said that he is still working with the commission to understand the new timeline.
At the March meeting, Grande stated that swift action to reduce flooding at Five Corners was key. “I don’t think we can afford to miss another season and go through what people have gone through in the last year,” he said.
Grande referred questions to Metell for this story.
