The Board seems to think that a second site is necessary in order to reduce the time, distance, and fuel consumption of the silt barge travel between Beach 4 and the dredging sites which are at the southwest end of the lake (the dam area). However, it appears that they have not considered the time and mileage requirements of the dump truck travel from Beach 2, to and from the Tufton Lake spoils site.
I have clocked the time and mileage comparisons of Beach 2 versus the current off load site at Beach 4. If Beach 2 is made a transfer site, the dump truck route to Tufton Lake will be three miles longer and travel time, at 25 mph, will be eight minutes longer (one way). The barge travel time would be six minutes shorter (one way) to dredge sites at the Jefferson Cove area, Beach 2. Multiply the rather large dump truck travel by eight (four round trips), which are the normal number of trips per day, and you have a total of 35.2 miles from Beach 2, and 11.2 miles from Beach 4. Travel time of 104 minutes from Beach 2, and 40 minutes from Beach 4 – all this expense to save additional barge time of 48 minutes (four round trips). A negative result for an expensive project.
The additional time and distance from Beach 2 will add three miles of dump truck travel on Jefferson Drive which is very hilly, especially at the steep decline to Jackson Creek and the steep incline to the stop sign at Barrett Street…a lot of soupy, messy material could leak out there. I don’t think the dump truck route from Beach 2 to Tufton Lake has been examined at all by the Board, in fact, I know that the dump truck has not driven this route to investigate the time, distance and impact.
It looks like the Board is willing to ignore the homeowners’ concerns, and waste tens of thousands of dollars of our dues money for this project that will permanently scar the beautiful and popular Beach 2. With minimum public exposure and obvious arrogance, this Board thinks they have sewed up this project with a construction contract in the works. It needs to be placed on the Board agenda for all to see.
This useless project should be stopped as soon as possible.
