ROYALSTON — In April, Gov. Charlie Baker approved $100 million for the state’s Winter Recovery Assistance Program. The town of Royalston will be using its share, $232,000, to reopen Brown Road. That amount was approved by officials at the Department of Transportation after reviewing plans submitted by Department of Public Works Director Keith Newton.
“They do this from time to time,” Newton told the Athol Daily News. “It doesn’t happen every year, but you can use this in conjunction with Chapter 90 monies for larger projects. What I had in mind for this money particularly is Brown Road. It was damaged on July 18, 2021 — that large storm we had. So, that road has been completely shut down since that time.
“We also have two other areas that have damage to the roadways where we intend to use some of the balance of these funds, along with whatever other monies (can be found).”
The other two roads damaged in the July 2021 storm were Warwick Road and Bliss Hill South, which, said Newton, “is virtually shut off because Warwick had more damage on their side of what is known as Bliss Hill.”
Newton said some preparation for work to Brown Road has already been done.
“I’ve had contractors in — qualified contractors — who are on our bid list, and they have aided in engineering this,” he said. “Now, if we were to take the funds and put them into an engineered set of documents and plans, we would still be money short on that allotment — we would still be putting more money into engineering.
“So, making an economic decision, we’ve got a lot of good, sound practices we’re going to apply. There are qualified contractors that are going to be doing this work, along with Public Works, and I think we can manage changing some big culverts out.”
When storm waters raised the level of Beaver Brook, the culvert in place beneath Brown Road couldn’t accommodate the increased flow and the swollen brook overtopped and washed out the roadway.
At a recent Selectboard meeting, Newton expressed the desire to get the Brown Road project started prior to Sept. 1, which is when Newton’s retirement from the DPW director’s post officially begins.
“I’ve got a lot of balls in the air ’til the last moment,” he said, “so, the intention is to get that started. I’ve pulled those contractors in. I already have some of the material that will be needed; I’ve got the pipes that we’re going to be using — they’re a very large diameter. A 52-inch culvert is what we’re changing, and I’m proposing that we install two of those that are 42 inches in diameter, which will give us substantially more — we’re going to be able to pass a lot more water through there than we could before.”
According to Newton, the town “also received $160,000 from the efforts of (Sen.) Jo Comerford and (Rep.) Susannah Whipps, which they had secured earlier in the mission, when they did the evaluations on the storm damage. Royalston’s apportionment at that time was $160,000. I’m going to use that in conjunction with the $232,000 and we’re probably going to have the right amount of money to complete that, and I hope to have a balance as well.”
Newton said he’s hopeful that Royalston’s Emergency Management Director Jim Barclay will secure at least some of the funding needed to repair the storm damage to Warwick Road, but stressed that Brown Road is definitely the current priority.
“My focus is Brown Road,” he reiterated, “because it’s truly shut down. Warwick Road is reduced to one lane but it’s still open. And Bliss Hill South is only shut down to traffic because, on the Warwick side of Bliss Hill, that is completely washed out.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.