Adams Conservation Commission Approves Route 8 Plans
The commissioners approved the project with conditions.
"When I looked at this I was very impressed by the detail and quality of the design so I feel comfortable with the engineering," William Lattrell, an ecologist and wetlands scientist who acts as consultant to the commission, said on Thursday.
The state Department of Transportation project will target about a mile of Route 8 from the Liberty Street intersection to where the bridge on Grove Street crosses over the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail.
The road will be resurfaced and narrowed. Pedestrian and bicycle markings will be added and drainage will be improved.
The commissioners actually saw the plans earlier this month but did not have a quorum. The approval came quickly because many of their questions were already answered, however, the commission did pause about the proposed stormwater management system.
The state Department of Environmental Protection flagged the system because it did not completely comply with state standards. Representatives from VHB, who presented the design, said it was a creative solution uniquely designed to the road.
"It is very hard to -- especially in this corridor -- putting in detention basins or infiltration basins where you have front yards," VHB wetlands scientists Gene Crouch said. "You would be taking out people's parking areas and we want to avoid doing that."
The system employs 13 bioretention planters that catch water. Water filters down through a special sand mix where it gets picked up by a perforated pipe. The water is then carried out to the drainage system.
Lattrell and Crouch agreed that DEP's remark was correct and the project cannot claim credit for the system because it is not specified in the stormwater "cookbook." Crouch said the system is still an improvement and is essentially a tree-box filter without a tree.
Lattrell added that this "stormwater cookbook" has not been updated in 10 years.
"It is 10 years old and there has been a lot of new technology since then that needs to be put in it," he said. "There have been many improvements in storm water control."
The commission generally felt the system was a good fit and agreed if the DEP really had major concerns they could appeal the project.
The planters will need to be maintained by the town and the commission added a condition that at the conclusion of construction the town is trained in how the system works and how to clean it.
Crouch also clarified that the project is a redevelopment rather than a development project and goes beyond the 66,000 square feet of degraded paved area stated. He said the entire project is about 70,000 square feet of work in the riverfront.
"We already have a degraded area we are working in and under the regulations we don't really have to worry about that," he said. "If we were just working within the footprint of the pavement and doing nothing else we wouldn't even have to file."
Lattrell said with redevelopment projects improvements need to be made and he cited three: less impervious area, improved filtration, and new deep sumps.
Lattrell spoke to another DEP concern that the project was so close to a resource area. He recommended that erosion control is monitored.
Crouch said MassDOT typically has a monitor on site but the commission made a condition that a monitor be on site and reports to the board every two weeks or after a rain event resulting in two or more inches of precipitation.
The project will likely go out to bid in March with work possibly starting in the fall.
Tags: conservation commission, MassDOT, road project, route 8,
