Forum Planned On Paine’s Creek Culvert Restoration

BREWSTER – Brewsterites love Paine’s Creek, but sometimes it can be a pain.

One such occasion culminated in 2013 when a larger culvert was installed beneath Paine’s Creek Road to improve tidal flow to Freemans Pond.That followed the erosion-induced loss of the Paine’s Creek Beach parking lot in 2011. The lot held more than 25 spaces in 2005 but had been reduced to eight to nine spots as more asphalt crumpled into the creek. Parking was relocated to a looping cul-de-sac as part of the 2013 project.

The project, funded in part by the state division of ecological restoration, helped restore 20 acres of salt marsh.

Now it’s time to go back and touch up the work of a decade ago. The town has scheduled an informational forum on Thursday March 14, from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Brewster Ladies’ Library to discuss Paine’s Creek/Freemans Pond culvert enhancements.

The project would cope with the increased erosion of the Freemans Pond creek shores that was expected when the smaller culvert was replaced with a larger one in 2013.

“The adaptive management that happened in 2013, over the years some of the rocks outside the culvert are starting to settle,” Brewster Natural Resources Director Chris Miller explained. “With high tides and storms, we’re losing sand on the top. We’ve had loads brought in by the DPW.”

But that is just donating town sand to the sea. Miller said the plan is to stabilize the rocks and erosion on both sides of the culvert under Paine’s Creek Road that flows to Freemans Pond.

Paine’s Creek has had a lot of work done. Prior to the 2013 culvert replacement in 2010 the culvert under Route 6A was replaced by an 18-foot wide modular unit to increase tidal flow into the marsh on the south side of Route 6A next to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. The 2013 project dealt with a smaller fork off the mouth of Paine’s Creek that carried tidal flow in and out of Freemans Pond. That cramped culvert was restricting the tides to Freemans Pond and resulting in tidal overflows over Paine’s Creek Road during storms. It was expected the increased flow of water would accelerate erosion of the sides of Freemans Pond creek.

As it happened, Miller said, one reason the town was unable to do more to shore up the culvert was a small sliver of salt marsh directly adjacent to the culvert, about one square meter. The town couldn’t tamper with the salt marsh. The last decade’s erosion carried that away and the town is now free to protect the culvert.

“We’ll stabilize these [rocks] with Shorebloc concrete mats. They look like cinder blocks, We’ve used them at Breakwater Beach and Ellis Landing,” Miller said.

The mats will be on both sides of the culvert covered with six inches of sand and won’t change the footprint of the channel.

“We’re hoping this doesn’t cost the town anything,” Miller said. “We have private partners and we have a grant from the department of environmental restoration of the state. They will pay for the permitting and outreach. We also have funding from the USDA, Natural Resource Conservation Service. They are providing funding for 75 percent of the construction.”

Miller hopes this will save the town money.

“The DPW has been putting quite a lot of sand in,” he said. “This is a very complex place. There are multiple groins and revetments. There is a lot going on. That’s why the parking lot was retracted. It was too hard to maintain.”

Miller said the erosion at the mouth of the eastern side of Paine’s Creek has continued as it slowly shifts east, That’s why it eventually ate the parking lot.

“We replenish it when we can,” he said of the sand. “We’ll be doing the permitting in March. It will be done in the spring. Bids will go out in the summer. The contractors will start work in November or December.”