State Funds To Assist With Long Pond Culvert Project

HARWICH – The select board has approved the use of $198,095 in Chapter 90 state highway funds for the second phase of a major culvert improvement project to address fish passage under Route 124 and the Cape Cod Rail Trail leading into Long Pond.

“We’re on borrowed time with this culvert,” DPW Director Lincoln Hooper told the board last week. There was a report of a sinkhole developing in the roadway above where the pipe meets the culvert. Sand buildup has impeded fish passage requiring increased maintenance work, including shoveling material by hand by natural resources department staff.

In the first part of the project, consultant Tighe & Bond conducted a site investigation and assessed design alternatives for improvements. The design calls for a nine-foot, six-inch-wide box culvert to replace the two-foot, six-inch culvert now beneath the road, project manager Eric Ohanian said Dec. 13. The $198,065 will cover permitting, utility coordination, right of way review, public engagement and geophysical survey phase of the project.

The goals of the project, according to Ohanian, are to improve public safety for vehicles and pedestrians; enhance fish passage for river herring migrations; increase community resilience by adapting to the effects of climate change; comply with the Massachusetts River and Stream crossing standards; and reduce operations and maintenance burdens.   

The work would be conducted on the east end of Princess Brook, the 489-foot stream that connects Hinckley’s Pond with Long Pond. The brook serves as a passageway for herring to access spawning waters.

The first phase conducted by Tighe & Bond was covered by $89,913 from a Massachusetts Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant. The first segment of the second phase, which is ongoing, received a $246,150 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,  Cape Cod Conservation District, for water level flow monitoring and design.    

Construction cost for the project is estimated at $5.2 million. The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service is committing to cover 75 percent or $3,939,750, leaving matching costs of $1,313,250 needed to meet the funding goal. Hooper said he has been working with the MVP program on funding over the past three years, and “there is a high degree of likelihood” the matching funds will come from MVP.

Select Board member Peter Piekarski wanted to know where the funding would come from if MVP does not cover the matching cost. Ohanian said there are other state programs from which funding could be sought, including the Department of Conservation and Recreation, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management.  

Hooper said he had thought the town would get the $198,095 for the design from MVP, but that was not the case. He said he will be seeking a grant this year from MVP for the $1.3 million in matching funds necessary to complete the project.  

To keep the project moving forward, Hooper recommended using state provided highway maintenance funds. The town has an uncommitted balance of $1,205,582, he said.

“I was more worried about shelving this project for a year and what happens to our partners,” said Hooper. “If we were not demonstrating we’re serious, are they willing to fork over $5 million?”  

He said the town gets about $700,000 in Chapter 90 funds each year, and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation have given its approval to use the Chapter 90 funds for the culvert replacement project.