Long Beach council approves amendment for FEMA-funded North Shore protection project amid utility delays

Tom Shafer of D&B Engineers told the City Council on Oct. 15 that the North Shore Critical Infrastructure Protection Project is fully funded by FEMA and that the city has over $39 million in federal funds to rebuild shoreline protections and replace utilities along Reynolds Channel.

The presentation described major components already complete and those still to come: roughly 2,000 linear feet of steel sheeting (about 85% of the bulkhead work), new water mains (about 60% installed), sanitary pipes (about 90% installed), storm piping (about 70%), a below-grade stormwater pump station rated to handle 33,000,000 gallons per day, deployable flood barriers at the boat ramp and railroad, and related utility relocations. Shafer warned that the work must coordinate with multiple private utilities and the Long Island Rail Road because critical gas mains and electrical conduits run in the same corridor.

Council members pressed the project team for details on schedule and costs. Shafer and city engineer Russell Dodge said the largest current holdups were the Long Island Rail Road final design acceptance and locating/approving two 26-inch National Grid gas mains that the presenters said supply 60–70% of the mainland’s gas. The railroad requires a formal outage window to construct crossing work; the team said construction is tentatively scheduled for Q1 2025 and will be confined to one weekend outage to minimize service disruption.

The council also reviewed a roughly $884,000 amendment to extend D&B’s design and construction-management services through project completion. Staff described earlier redesign costs tied to Army Corps permitting (roughly $500,000 in 2016) and said recent overruns largely stem from utilities marking discrepancies, late reversals of previously approved utility designs and complex crossings under the Long Beach Boulevard structure. City officials said they are documenting those problems and anticipate pursuing legal avenues to recover costs from utilities that they assert failed to locate or properly approve existing facilities.

City Controller Ina Vaznik told the council the project funding is a mix of FEMA grant proceeds and borrowing previously authorized up to the $39 million project cap; she said available working capital and reimbursements mean the city does not expect additional borrowing immediately. Projected completion dates provided by the team show remaining bulkhead work complete by summer 2025 and Water Street final restoration by fall 2025, with some utility work and pump-station internal systems continuing into spring.

Council action: the council voted to authorize the city manager to amend the design-and-engineering agreement to retain D&B through the end of the project and to continue construction-management services. Several council members expressed frustration about the scale of overruns but agreed the work must proceed to protect critical infrastructure.

Next steps: staff said they will continue weekly coordination with utilities and the railroad, finalize construction schedules for the planned railroad outage and pursue cost recovery from utilities where justified.