What are they doing on Manhasset Woods Road? There are countless orange construction cones and sightings of Manhasset-Lakeville Water District (MLWD) trucks.

The Incorporated Village of Flower Hill is repaving Manhasset Woods Road, Bonnie Heights Road and Knolls Lane. The village knew it could never close the road completely so the least disruptive course of action was occasionally forcing temporary one-way traffic. According to Charles Vachris, Flower Hill engineer, all work should be completed by the end of December, weather permitting.

Immediately after work commenced on Manhasset Woods Road, the MLWD approached the Village and asked if they could replace the water main, which runs the full length of the road, now, instead of waiting until 2005 when the work was scheduled. The village agreed because most of their contract work was in shared areas with the restoration work required by the water main installation. Restoration work required by the water district that does not occur in shared areas will be done by the village's contractor, and the village will be reimbursed by the MLWD. It is a win-win situation. The water district benefits from minimal restoration costs and the village benefits from having additional road and gutter work performed, and not having the current work destroyed in two years.

In 1997 the village completed a project at the intersection of Stonytown Road and Manhasset Woods Road which eliminated a sharp S-curve. The road was repaved in concrete to a point approximately 650 feet to the south of Stonytown Road.

The current project extends from that point all the way south, to the village line. And, in an excellent example of inter-village cooperation between Flower Hill Mayor James Damascus and Mayor Harry Nicolaides of Munsey Park, the project was extended to include another 220 feet of road reconstruction in the Village of Munsey Park, ending just north of Park Avenue. Thus, Manhasset Woods Road will be completely renovated from Stonytown Road to Park Avenue. Mayor Jim Damascus also noted that "State Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli has been most helpful in acquiring state funds to help the village with this project." The project is under the direction of Vachris Engineering, P.C., village engineer for Flower Hill in conjunction with Dvirka & Bartilucci Consulting Engineers, village engineer for Munsey Park. This is a cooperative effort of the Flower Hill and Munsey Park village engineers and the H2H Group, the Water District's engineers.

Manhasset Woods Road was originally constructed with a concrete pavement surface. Years ago, when the surface started to deteriorate, an asphalt pavement overlay was applied as a typical resurfacing. This type of repair was repeated several times until the current roadway now has approximately four to five inches of asphalt overlay. Not only have these overlays started to deteriorate but portions of the original concrete pavement underneath have crumbled. The gutters are also deteriorating and no longer function properly.

On Manhasset Woods Road the village's contractor will be reconstructing the concrete gutters, replacing the deteriorating concrete panels, grinding down the existing asphalt surface, and applying a new asphalt surface. This will allow the road to be reopened within hours; if concrete pavement was used, it would require three days of curing before the road could be reopened. The work on Bonnie Heights Road is basically the same and the village has extended the work in that area to include the east end of Elderfields Road.

The work on Manhasset Woods Road was only slightly delayed to permit the MLWD's contractor to install the water main. Gutter construction and concrete base replacement should be completed the first week in December. The milling of the existing asphalt pavement and the placement of the new asphalt overlay are expected to be completed by the end of the month, weather permitting. With modern mixes and plants, asphalt pavement can be placed in temperatures as low as 40 degrees.

Mayor Damascus said "our engineer annually inspects and assigns a condition level to all the roads and gutters in the entire village and we have been addressing those areas in order, starting with those areas that are in the worst shape." He continued, "Once this current phase is completed, we will have worked on over 75 percent of the 20 plus miles of the village's roads and spent over $4 million without floating a bond issue or increasing the village's taxes."