It's Beyond Potholes

Motorists traveling along Route 27 in East Hampton Town and beyond will be negotiating an obstacle course for some time yet - sideswiping cavernous potholes while trying not to get stuck in muck on the shoulders. If the State Department of Transportation sticks to its present work schedule, that is.

First proposed in 1993 with the understanding that the work would start in 1997, a major resurfacing of Route 27 here will not take place until at least 1999 or 2000, according to D.O.T. officials. When their time does come, the improvements will be made in two parts: a 10.5-mile stretch from Norris Avenue just east of the Sag Harbor-Bridgehampton Turnpike in Bridgehampton to Cranberry Hole Road, Amagansett, and from Cranberry Hole to Montauk Point.

"It's just worn out - way past its life expectancy," said Chris Russo, the East Hampton Town Highway Superintendent, of the road, adding that over all, Montauk Highway had "deteriorated to the point of dangerous."

Slid Out

The last major improvement to the thoroughfare, Mr. Russo recalled, was in the 1950s and '60s. Some of the worst sections, he said, are just west of the intersection of the old and new Montauk Highways at the eastern end of Napeague, Pantigo Road in East Hampton Village, and between Wainscott and Bridgehampton where, he said, "it's not only in need of resurfacing - it's rip out and reconstruct."

Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village Administrator, called the road "a disaster" this week. The Village Mayor, Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., has asked the D.O.T.'s regional director to "advance" the project to an earlier date.

"The project has 'slid out'" a year or two - government-speak for having been put off - said Richard Schmalz, the state transportation agency's regional planning head. Mr. Schmalz attributed the delay to Gov. George E. Pataki's cutbacks in transportation funds, which spread allocations over seven years from 1995, instead of five.

Thiele Fumes

Road-fixing priorities are based on "pavement conditions and the number of accidents," he said. Potholes, though, will be filled "as needed," said Mr. Schmalz, apparently unaware that the need is now.

"I used to plow the highway from Bridgehampton through East Hampton" under a state contract, said Mr. Russo. "If they asked me now to put my truck on the shoulders" of this road, "I would refuse."

"If it's a budget problem," said Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., right now would be an appropriate time to deal with it. The lawmaker vowed to be "aggressive" in trying to "get this thing pushed up to 1997."

The D.O.T., fumed Mr. Thiele, has been "singularly unresponsive" to local issues. He called the agency one of the "most intransigent" in the state bureaucracy.

Counting Potholes

As of now, the resurfacing job is not slated to begin until 1999, confirmed Chris Williams, a D.O.T. planning engineer, adding that it was "early in the planning stages."

Mr. Russo said he saw state transportation workers "counting potholes" on the highway last week. Mr. Williams said he was aware of "pavement distress" in the area, but added that state has "such a backlog" that it can take "five years before real planning begins."

Meanwhile, the only D.O.T. work scheduled for the East End this year is construction of a left-hand turn at Stephen Hand's Path eastbound off Route 27 in East Hampton, according to Frank Zambinini of the D.O.T.'s maintenance department.

Signal At Post Office

Contracts for that job, together with the addition of a lane at the South Ferry on Route 114 on Shelter Island, will be bid at the end of May, with work starting two to three months after that.

The full resurfacing project will include, among other improvements, a "restriping" of traffic lanes near the East Hampton Post Office, a new traffic signal there, and additional drainage and shoulder restoration where necessary, said Charles Widener of Dunn Engineering, the village's engineers.

Mayor Complains

"About a month ago, we asked for [permission to do] a pavement restoration at least a mile east of the Stephen Hand's Path work, to Jericho Road," said Mr. Zambinini, "but it was late in the game," meaning too late in the year to get the money.

"We understand it's in bad condition," he added. "We can fill the potholes, but our maintenance people claim that it's beyond filling potholes."

"We believe that the current condition of Route 27 is among the very worst of any state highway on Long Island," Mayor Rickenbach wrote recently to Edward J. Petrou, the D.O.T.'s regional director in Hauppauge. "I must believe that the roadway has been allowed to deteriorate to its current condition only because being here, near the extreme east end of Long Island, it receives less attention."

Mr. Schmalz said the D.O.T. planners probably would "look at this again," as a result of the Mayor's letter.