Carmel town officials have laid out a timeline that could have the first phase of the long-awaited Swan Cove project underway later this year with plans for the waterfront park and parking lot to follow immediately afterward.
The Town Board voted Sept. 16 to hire Woodard & Curran Engineering and Geological Services to provide engineering and bid-assistance services for the first phase of the Downtown Mahopac Improvements project at a cost not to exceed $13,800.
Town Engineer Richard Franzetti said bid specifications and drawings for the Phase 1 construction work were scheduled to be advertised Sept. 23, beginning a roughly five-week bidding period that will run through late October.
The move follows the board's Sept. 2 vote authorizing the town to advertise for bids for Phase 1, another milestone for a project that has been stalled by redesigns, environmental issues and difficult site conditions for much of the past decade.
Phase 1 will not include construction of the planned municipal parking lot, waterfront park and other amenities. Instead, it will tackle one of the primary problems that has complicated development of the lakefront property — the unstable, waterlogged soil beneath it.
The work involves what engineers call a surcharge program, in which weight is placed on the site to compress and stabilize the underlying soils and force out water before permanent improvements can be built.
Councilman Rob Kearns said completing that work will prepare the property for construction of the park and parking area.
“Basically, a compression of the soils underneath because the soils that are in the ground there are peaty, if you want to call it as such,” Kearns said. “This compression will correct — get rid of the water — and then they'll be able to use that dirt there to build the park area and the parking area.”
Franzetti said the surcharge and soil-compaction process is expected to take approximately four to six months, depending on what engineers find once work begins. Geotechnical probes will be used to monitor conditions at the site.
The town intends to use that waiting period to prepare Phase 2, so construction of the park and parking lot can begin as soon as the soil-stabilization work is finished.
Kearns said the goal is to avoid another lengthy gap between phases.
“Phase 2 would start immediately following the completion of Phase 1,” he said. “We'll work … with Woodard & Curran to get to Phase 2 so it rolls simultaneously from [one phase to the other].”
Franzetti clarified that the Phase 2 plans are currently about 70 percent complete, largely because the town is still waiting for some permits. He said the remaining design work should be finished before the Phase 1 stabilization period ends, allowing the town to seek bids for the second phase.
Phase 2 would bring the more visible improvements residents have been waiting for, including construction of the municipal parking lot and the Lake Mahopac waterfront park.
The town purchased the Swan Cove property nearly a decade ago as part of an effort to improve downtown Mahopac, where public parking is limited, while creating public access to Lake Mahopac. Plans have called for a waterfront green space along with parking and recreational amenities, but the project has repeatedly been delayed as officials dealt with engineering, flooding, as well as soil and design issues.
Kearns acknowledged the project's history during the Sept. 16 meeting.
“This has been a very long overdue project — we're talking 10 years,” he said. “The board is very excited to get this thing moving in the right direction.”
Kearns said officials will also be watching the project's cost as it moves ahead.
“We're going to make sure that we do our responsibilities financially,” he said. “We don't want to overspend on this property, but we also want to be able to provide an asset for the community. It is lakefront property.”
Access to the Swan Cove area itself will be restricted while the surcharge work is underway, Franzetti said. Nearby Chamber Park should remain accessible to pedestrians, he said, although parking could be difficult during construction.
Franzetti said plans also call for maintaining access to neighboring Tompkins Bank during the work. Traffic through the bank area would temporarily operate in one direction, entering through the driveway near the gas station and behind the bank before exiting at the existing traffic light.
Some parking would remain available for the bank and its employees, although Franzetti cautioned that the number of spaces would be limited during construction.
“We're going to do everything we can to make sure that everybody can utilize [the new park],” Kearns said, “while making sure we're very cautious on the cost.”
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