DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board voted to have concrete sidewalks for the Orchard Road reconstruction. 

 

The anticipated start date of the project, according to the town manager, is April 1, Select Board member Marc Strout said on his selectman's Facebook group. 

 

The base bid of $923,807.36 does not include a full sidewalk. The base bid included a small center area to be paved with bituminous asphalt, Town Manager Tom Hutcheson said during the Select Board meeting last week. 

 

To have sidewalks, the board had to accept from the alternates proposed that had additional cost estimates. 

 

The board voted to have the entire sidewalk to be concrete, which would bring the total cost of the project up to approximately $1,051,295.

 

A majority of that will be covered by the $1 million state MassWorks grant that the town was approved for last year. 

 

The remaining approximately $51,000 would have to be covered using the rural road funds that the town receives. 

 

Alternate A would extend the sidewalk using asphalt all the way to Routes 8 and 9 from the center and would have cost an additional $63,850, bringing a total cost of about $987,657.36. 

 

Alternate B was for the outer sections of the two additional stretches of sidewalks to be made of concrete, which has a bit for an additional cost of $44,695. 

 

Alternate C was for the stretch of the sidewalk between Route 9 and Route 8 to be made of concrete for an additional cost of $18,900.

 

Having the whole sidewalk be concrete is anticipated to cost an additional $63,595, combining the base bid with the cost of alternate B and C. That plan would bring the project to $1,051,252.36, the sidewalk option sheet said.

 

"For the additional sidewalk, it was just asphalt around $64,000 is already being covered as part of the grant, plus another $13,000, so I think that's a good deal for a long stretch of concrete sidewalk," Select Board Vice Chair Dan Esko said. 

 

"That's basically, we're paying $51,000 for that entire stretch of concrete sidewalk. And that's, that's good value, I think, for our money but that's my opinion." 

 

According to the project engineer, SK Design Group Inc., existing typography of the area such as trees, poles, and a fire hydrant, is preventing one continuous sidewalk along the stretch of the road. 

 

The sidewalk needs to be constructed on the east side of the road, beginning at Route 9 and extending to Pease Avenue. Then, from the south of Pease Avenue and the river, the sidewalk has to be built on the west side. 

 

"That is the current plan to place it on the other side would be substantially more expensive and would result in a very substantial delay to the project," Hutcheson said. 

 

Resident Amy Musante expressed her concerns with this design which she has raised at several meetings. 

 

She said that it was unsafe for children to have to cross the street twice rather than once. 

 

Musante also emphasized a concern she has raised during numerous meetings — that the construction of a sidewalk along the edge of her farmland could negatively impact the soil health. The farmland is protected under an Agricultural Preservation Restriction.

 

According to a soil analysis by Cornell and UMass, there are already issues with the land's soil health, particularly in the northeast corner, which is not along the sidewalk, caused by runoff from Route 9, she said during a meeting in February. 

 

"Soil scientists have suggested to me that looking at the magnesium levels there, that it's likely the result of runoff from Route 9, so efforts to keep the road from freezing and the salt has is contaminating the soil, and that's going to be a big uphill battle to try to get around that, in my efforts to try to reclaim that field in a more healthy situation than it's been maintained by previous use," Musante said. 

 

If the sidewalk is constructed there the town will have to put salt on it to keep it safe for residents, she said. 

 

"I'm concerned that will further contaminate the field along that that area. And so I think that's a legitimate concern on my part, regardless of what the chemicals that they use," Musante said. 

 

"Not only would that harm the soil ecology, but it also impacts the soil structure, and this leads to the build-up of water and saturated soils, which basically means you're going to get more pooling and more runoff. And that's not something that obviously, anybody wants along Orchard Road there."

 

Background on the Orchard Road Reconstruction: 

 

The road, which is often used as a connector to Route 9, has had flooding for many years because of undersized drainage pipes, Highway Superintendent Edward "Bud" Hall has previously said. 

 

Most of the flooding is in the middle of the road and into abutting residents' yards, sometimes reaching a depth of 6 inches near the Pease Avenue and Appletree Lane intersections to the East Branch of the Housatonic River. 

 

The reconstruction includes a new drainage system that will replace the piping and catch basins with new and bigger pipes and move them to the center of the road from Pease Avenue to the bridge.

 

The blacktop on the other side of the road, near Wahconah Country Club and from the Massachusetts Public Works building to Route 9, will be replaced. 

 

This project has been six years in the making and is now possible thanks to the town's approval for a state MassWorks grant of $1 million. The grant will be used to address the street's drainage issues. More information on the grant is here.