Route 2 Drainage Project Won't Change Flooding at Spruces

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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The culverts and berm being installed on the Spruces property is to alleviate flooding on the other side of Route 2, not in the mobile home park.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The state Department of Transportation project under way on the Spruces Mobile Home Park property is going to provide flooding relief for the neighborhood across the road, but it will do nothing to solve the problems at the park itself.
 
Erik Bilik of MassDOT has discussed the project at Town Hall meetings on a couple of occasions dating back to last September, but some residents may have been confused when they saw contractors installing 3-foot culverts and digging a long trench or swale through the flood-prone park this summer.
 
On Wednesday, Williamstown Public Works Director Tim Kaiser explained that the new culverts are being installed to alleviate flooding on the south side of Main Street (Route 2).
 
"It was in response to concerns of people who live on that side of the road about flooding coming down Luce Road," Kaiser said.
 
Bilik studied the existing drainage last year and determined the culvert under Route 2 was "severely undersized," Kaiser said.
 
Originally, MassDOT planned to install a 5-foot culvert, but it found that pipe would not work with existing utility lines in the ground. So it went with three 3-foot culverts.
 
"And they removed a section of 3-foot pipe [on the Spruces lot] down to where the 4-foot pipe begins," Kaiser said.
 
The 4-foot pipe carries stormwater under the Spruces property and down to the Hoosic River. 
 
Unfortunately, that 4-foot pipe is not enough to carry all the water that flows into the Spruces property from across the road, and that is why the swale was added "as a buffer," Kaiser said.
 
"The removal of the smaller [3-foot] diameter pipe in the park and the addition of the swale will mean slightly improved or no worse flooding at the park," he said. "They wanted to make sure [this summer's] work doesn't exacerbate the problem.
 
"But it does nothing for the real flooding threat, which comes from the river."
 
Three years ago this month, Tropical Storm Irene caused the Hoosic to overflow its banks, causing the worst flooding in recent memory at the park, destroying 153 homes and setting off a chain of events that will lead to the park's permanent closure in February 2016 under the terms of a FEMA hazard mitigation grant.

Tags: culvert,   flooding,   MassDOT,   Spruces,   

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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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