Crews are installing a new culvert under Route 28 more than twice as wide as the original one as part of a $1.5 million project to improve the flood plain.
Crews are installing a new culvert under Route 28 more than twice as wide as the original one as part of a $1.5 million project to improve the flood plain.
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SALEM — Construction crews began installing roughly 90 feet of culvert last week that will span the width of Route 28 just north of Westchester Street.
The estimated $1.5 million project is part of a two-year project to improve water and sewer infrastructure along the road and should solve a “notorious” flooding issue in the area during major rain, according to Roy Sorenson, the town’a director of municipal services.
“It’s a major project. It’s gotta be probably the biggest project this town’s done in I can’t even tell you how long,” Sorenson said.
Sorenson said crews began laying prefabricated concrete components last Wednesday, widening the mouth of the culvert from 5 feet by 5 feet to 12 feet by 5 feet, large enough to qualify it for the state’s bridge registry.
Crews will work over the winter to place 41 segments over foundation footings.
“Part of the challenge right now is obviously the temperature,” Sorenson said.
The project requires workers to close two lanes of the road temporarily, shift traffic westward, reroute and treat the water and dewater the construction zone to lower the water table to about 20 to 25 feet.
Grout work to seal the segments together needs to be done in warmer temperatures, so a plastic, heated tent is erected around it.
“It almost looks like a greenhouse,” Sorenson said.
The final step of the process will involve sealing and reinstalling fiber-optic cables over the top of the culvert.
The first two-thirds of the structure is expected to be complete by the second week of December before the next phase begins on the other side of the road. The deadline for the project is in April.
The water the culvert handles originates in the Millville Lake watershed and is a tributary to North Policy Brook. After the project is complete, it will be directed into a redesigned flood plain recommended by a 2017 hydraulic study the town required Tuscan Village developers to complete.
It ultimately leads into the Spicket River, Sorenson said.
The $12 million Route 28 infrastructure project began last year after voters approved it in March, 2018. Earlier this year, crews completed the replacement of water and sewer lines under the road.
After the culvert project is completed, crews will complete the reconstruction of the Salem Depot area by late 2020 to spring 2021, Sorenson said.
A separate planned culvert project to reconstruct a much longer stretch further upstream behind the Central Fire Station is estimated to cost about $4.5 million. Sorenson said a FEMA grant would cover 80% of that cost, and the rest would go before voters in a proposed warrant article in March.
