'Sticker shock' in replacing culvert under West Woods Road

SHARON — The town expects to pay an estimated $803,028 to replace an aging culvert under West Woods Road, according to representatives from Lenard Engineering in Winsted.

The Board of Selectmen, along with members of the Board of Finance, reviewed details about the potential project during a special meeting held on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at Town Hall.

The company recently completed the new Gay Street sidewalk. First Selectman Malcolm Brown said he asked the company to give an estimate for this project.

Brown said the town has been worried about the condition of the culvert since last spring, when it began to crumble.

“It’s become a major concern for the town,â€� Brown said. “In the first year I was in office, I drove over West Woods Road with [town crew member] Floyd Ellis Sr.,  who told me that they were worried that the culvert was going to go. Sure enough, it started to go last spring.â€�

Todd Parsons, principal engineer from Lenard Engineering, was not optimistic about the current condition of the culvert — or how much it would cost to replace it.

“The culvert is collapsing due primarily to scour on the downstream side,� Parsons said. “There is a scour hole that is six to eight feet deep, which washed away the embankment that supported the wall on the downstream side. There is a lot of deterioration and the supporting wall is starting to cave. Parts of the wall have already started to fall into the stream.�

Scour is a term used to describe gaps caused as rock and sediment wash away from the base of a bridge.

Parsons said that, because the culvert is estimated to be three and-a-half square miles, it falls under the jurisdiction of both the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Army Corps of Engineers.

“They don’t allow you to just put back what was there,� he said in explaining why the culvert can not be simply repaired. “We need to re-establish an aquatic passage to allow fish and other creatures to go back and forth and not have all these fractured environments. When you factor in all of this, the construction gets very expensive.�

The company estimated the cost at $803,028 “in 2010 dollars,� referring to the possible time frame for the work. If constructed this year, the project would cost an estimated $698,284 ($367,325 for construction, $215,252 for engineering services, $73,465 for minor items and $42,242 for other “lump sum� items).

The meeting was strictly informational and no vote was taken. Brown said the project will now be reviewed by the town’s Long-Range Planning Committee.

The culvert is one of many infrastructure concerns in town, Brown said. Other problem areas include bridges on King Hill Road and Sharon Valley Road.

This past spring, Amenia Union Bridge, which is in Sharon and Amenia and bridges the Mill Brook, was replaced after receiving a 3.18 rating.