Department of Environmental Protection to Clean and Repair Culverts in Cannonsville Reservoir Watershed

Motorists encouraged to use caution as work may require intermittent lane closures

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection recently announced that work will begin this month to clean and repair four large box culverts in the Cannonsville Reservoir watershed. The work will promote water quality, protect local roadways, and reduce the chances of flooding by ensuring that four local brooks flow properly through the culverts, unimpeded by debris and sediment from previous storms.

The $3.5 million project includes work to the following culverts in Delaware County:

• A culvert on County Route 47 through which the Loomis Brook flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 40 feet wide.
• A culvert on County Route 27 through which the Mormon Hollow Creek flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide.
• A culvert on Dry Brook Road through which the Dry Brook flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide.
• A culvert on Dryden Brook Road through which the Dryden Brook flows. The culvert is 10 feet tall and 32 feet wide.

Sediment from previous storms will be cleaned out of these culverts, which in some cases are as much as 60 percent full of debris that had been washed in from tropical storms Irene and Lee. After debris is removed, concrete repairs will be done from inside the culverts. Some of the culverts’ wing walls will be rehabilitated and new rocks will be set in place to stabilize the shores where the stream banks meet the culverts. Old guiderails will be removed from all the culverts and replaced with new ones, and the roads that run atop the culverts will be resurfaced.

Motorists are asked to use caution while driving through these areas, as the projects may require intermittent lane closures or work along the highway shoulders. Work is expected to be finished by September.

The culverts were installed in the 1950s and 1960s, at the same time as construction of Cannonsville Reservoir and its facilities. The Cannonsville Reservoir, placed into service in 1964, holds roughly 95.7 billion gallons of water. It collects water from a 455-square-mile watershed, the largest watershed of any single reservoir in New York City’s water supply system.

DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than one billion gallons of high quality water each day to more than 9 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the upstate watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $157 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with nearly $14 billion in investments planned over the next 10 years that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.