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Public Works Requests CZM Approval for Road, Culvert and Bridge Repairs on St. Croix

A map of expected job sites for CZM approval on St. Croix (Zoom Screenshot)

The Department of Public Works presented via Zoom a federal consistency determination for road, culvert and bridge repairs on St. Croix at the St. Croix Coastal Zone Management public hearing on Tuesday.

V.I. Paving, Inc. – on behalf of Public Works in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Transportation – presented the project, which proposes the repair and replacement of two bridges over guts, a double culvert crossing into the Altona Lagoon and 12 other road and culvert repairs around the island.

“The work encompasses 15 different sites around the island of St. Croix. It will focus on storm damage repairs to roadways from hurricane damage in 2017,” said Benjamin Keularts of Tysam Tech, the environmental firm working on the project with Public Works.

According to Keularts, the work is anticipated to start in June 2021, with a completion date of June 2022. The 15 sites can generally be categorized into three different levels and types of work, and there are three different rehabilitation sites.

The three bridge sites include the East Henry E. Rohlsen Airport Road bridge, Midland Road bridge and the Altona Lagoon bridge located in Christiansted culvert crossing. All three of the bridges contain gut crossings, and there are plans to protect and minimize gut impact during the construction. The roadway rehab will essentially entail the removal of damaged asphalt and concrete and installing guard rails and other utilities as needed.

Engineer Daniel Schierloh of V.I. Paving, Inc. said that the East Airport Road has an old historic bridge that has been patched with a lot of repairs to the point where it is unstable for vehicles. Because it is a historic bridge, the company is trying to see if it can keep portions of it. The bridge is 22-feet wide and the goal is to expand it so that it can accommodate more traffic.

Jadriel Yomar John of JJ Fishing Adventures throws a net in Altona Lagoon. (Photo by Sol Garcia)

The Altona Lagoon bridge is 175-linear-feet of roadway over box culverts. The culverts will be removed and replaced after the drainage system is repaired. Schierloh said that fishers and other people who want to gain access to the lagoon will be kept in mind. “That is something we are taking into consideration, but we have not come to that point as yet,” he said.

Schierloh said that on the agenda for the Altona Lagoon will be the repair of the bridge on the two sidewalks. He said that the plan is to make the railings more aesthetically pleasing, but still protect pedestrians.

Also on the agenda at the lagoon location is the repair of the road heading toward Schooner Bay Condos. “Over the years there has been a lot of patching that has been done in sections of it. We are going to strip everything off and build the road back up to where it needs to be,” Schierloh said. V.I. Paving also plans to install drainage to help stabilize the road so that standing water does not continue to be an issue.

During the question-and-answer portion of the presentation CZM committee Chairwoman Massarae Sprauve-Webster asked, “How do you anticipate getting all these projects done in a year?”

“We are definitely going to be breaking them up in groups,” Schierloh responded. “We have them split up by road repairs, culvert repairs and then we separated the bridge and the box culverts. The road repairs we expect to get approved quicker, and then the scopes are a little simpler so they will get approval quicker as well. Our goal is to start those areas first, and we will try and do them one by one.”

“The culverts will be tougher with traffic control because we will have to cross the road completely at some point,” he continued. “There are some options of doing half the road at once, and then doing the other half and do a single road of traffic control. As for the bridges, we will have to do a detour road.”

Other projects for road work requested included:

  • Route 82 – 0.5 – Chenay Bay
  • Route 82 – 3.5 – Cotton Valley
  • Route 753 – Mt. Welcome Road
  • Route 763 – 0.00 – Mahogany Road
  • Route 765 – 0.00 – Rainforest
  • Route 63 – MP 0.9 Concordia
  • Route 78 – West Scenic Road in Sweet Bottom
  • Route 80 – MP 0.8 North Shore Road
  • Route 80 – Northshore Road East Culverts
  • Route 80 – Northshore Road West Single Culvert
  • Route 732 – Windsor Road

During the public hearing, other projects presented were:

Major CZM Permit No. CZX-36-20 for the St. Croix Yacht Club. The yacht club is trying to bring the property into compliance to facilitate future work on the site. They are seeking a consolidated permit for all existing structures on the site and requesting permission to conduct repairs on an existing dock and to obtain approval of minor improvements and renovations at the existing St. Croix Yacht Club site. The project site is located on Plots 17, 18, 19 and 26 Estate North Slob, as well as the docks offshore.

Federal Consistency Determination CZX-2-21, a National Park Service proposal to do post-hurricane rehabilitation of the Contact Station within its existing foundation footprint, with repairs and alterations to the existing building to meet current code requirements. The project site is located at the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve Contact Station Plot Nos. 26, 27, 28, 34, 35, 36 and 27 Estate Salt River, Christiansted, St. Croix.

The Federal Consistency Projects are available for public review on the DPNR-CZM website.

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