Update on Harbor Road from the Ward Melville Heritage Organization

The Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) announced on June 23 that it has retained an engineering firm, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers (MRCE), and work has begun on taking borings of Harbor Road to determine its composition. This process entails drilling down every five feet until reaching 50 feet, inserting a four-inch wide hollow tube, and pulling out samples of soil from three separate locations. 

An engineer will analyze data from the borings. Once that information is gathered, hydraulic data (rainfall, road runoff, the existing water in the pond) will then be analyzed. This process will take approximately two to four months. 

The board of trustees feels the frustration of the community regarding the issue of Harbor Road, and we have initiated this work to secure on an accelerated basis the critical information needed to repair or replace Harbor Road. After signing the contract with MRCE on February 12, the first step of this multi-tiered process was conducting a survey of the grist mill and providing a subsequent report. Once the data collection and analysis are complete, three design concepts will be provided. 

The organization hopes to at that point share all the pertinent details with the county, towns, and village. They realize that the matter requires a comprehensive approach that prevents this disaster from recurring in the future.