NORTHAMPTON—Several months after a major weather event caused the culvert on Old Wilson Road to fail, the city is now planning to remove that culvert and open the road’s stream channel.
At a Transportation and Parking Commission meeting on Dec. 16, DPW Director Donna LaScaleia said the road has been closed to vehicle traffic for months after a spring rainstorm collapsed the culvert.
“At this point, the structural integrity is compromised enough that I don’t feel comfortable reopening the roadway,” LaScaleia said during the meeting. “So, it will remain blocked.”
LaScaleia and Director of Planning & Sustainability Carolyn Misch explained during the Dec. 16 meeting that the city is working to remove the failed culvert, which would essentially cut Old Wilson Road in half and restore the existing stream channel.
Misch said the city is currently formalizing and finalizing plans to open the stream, remove the collapsed culvert, restore the area around Old Wilson Road and create a bicycle and pedestrian connection that would remain along the road.
The plans also show a small turnaround with one or two parking spaces and pavement leading up to a pedestrian bridge. Vehicles, however, will not be allowed to cross that bridge.
Misch said the cost estimate for the removal and construction parts of the project is just over $300,000. While this will be a city cost, Misch said a grant from the state paid for the entire design and bid documents associated with the project. She said the state is also overseeing the contractor doing this work.
Both Misch and LaScaleia argued that this project plan was the most cost-effective and environmentally conscious route to solve the failed culvert issue. The other options are creating a huge box culvert or stream crossing, but LaScaleia said the stream crossing standards are too strict and cost prohibitive nowadays.
“If we were to do any work on this culvert to restore the roadway … that actually starts to become cost prohibitive,” LaScaleia said. “We’ve looked at it in several locations around the city, and it’s actually turning into a situation where it is better for us to remove the culvert and restore the stream, because the stream crossing standards are almost requiring you to build the equivalent of a bridge.”
Misch added that the state is generally helping communities across the state with their aging culverts as intense rainstorms become more frequent due to climate change.
In the case of Old Wilson Road, the project is part of the city’s broader efforts to restore a 105-acre part of the greenway on the road, which used to function as the Pine Grove Golf Course from the 1960s to 2020. The city purchased the property in 2020 and utilized state Municipal Vulnerability program grant funds and local Community Preservation Act funds to complete an initial round of restoration immediately after purchasing the property.
The city also received a $250,000 grant in 2022 from Division of Ecological Resources to investigate next steps in the restoration process. During the Dec. 16 meeting, Misch said the city has so far preserved the area where there are a significant amount of upstream resources to the Connecticut River Oxbow and Arcadia. She added that the city has planted over 100 trees in the area through a DER grant and poked holes in former greens and fairways to facilitate natural rewilding.
Misch also said that the city has hosted many public meetings to see what restoration of the golf course would look like. She said the city is working on developing an accessible trail network throughout the entire 100 acres.
“That’s a different part of the construction intention that will be going forward,” Misch said.
As for the Old Wilson plans, Transportation and Parking Commission members and the public appeared receptive to the city’s plan to remove the culvert and restore the stream channel.
“I think it might be good that our hand was forced to do this quickly, instead of spending a lot more money and time negotiating the bridge and other ways to do things,” said Ward 2 City Councilor Deb Klemer, a member of the commission. “[It’s] fairly inexpensive as far as road and other projects go.”
Misch said all the residents that live near this project, with the exception of one, are on board with the removal of the culvert.
LaScaleia said the city will work on the project as soon as possible because the culvert is currently blocked, which means water can’t get through and the DPW has to pump the water over to the other side.
