Long-awaited Sewer Project To Begin Next Week

by Tim Wood

            CHATHAM --- After a dozen years of study, thousands of pages of documentation and the recent coalescing of an angry and vocal opposition, the town’s wastewater expansion project will get underway next week.

            Crews from Harwich-based Robert B. Our Co. will begin digging on the southern end of George Ryder Road, between Route 28 and Chatham Municipal Airport, on Monday.  By the time the work halts just prior to Memorial Day, several crews will be working in several neighborhoods and along Route 28, necessitating a number of road closures and detours.

Message boards such as this one on George Ryder Road are being placed around town to provide traffic information when the town’s massive sewer expansion project begins next week. ALAN POLLOCK PHOTO

       “People should expect detours,” said Chatham Police Lt. Michael Anderson.

            The work involves installation of the first phase of the expanded sewer collection system.  Last May, town meeting appropriated $59.9 million for the work. Our’s bid for the collection system work came in at $12 million, $8 million less than anticipated.  Work on the $40 million expansion of the Sam Ryder Road wastewater treatment plant, which received grants and low-interest loans from the United States Agriculture Department, is also expected to begin in the next few weeks, according to Dr. Robert Duncanson, director of health and environment.

            The project --- the first phase in the 20-year, $186 million plan to eliminate nitrogen loading from the town’s coastal waterways --- is getting underway despite an appeal opponents filed with the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Office.  A decision on the appeal is expected by March 19.

            Town Manager William Hinchey said he’s working under the last May’s town meeting vote and has no authorization to delay the project.

            “I have town meeting telling me to do this,” he said.  “The appeal does not have standing above town meeting.”

            Both segments of the project also involve stimulus funding and are therefore subject to deadlines.  While the USDA money must be spent within five years, other technical requirements kicked in when the bids for the work were approved and signed, which happened before the appeal was filed, he said.  Based on those authorizations, the contractors could have claims against the town if delays are imposed, he said.

            Opponents have urged town officials to delay implementation of the project until both costs and alternatives to a centralized treatment system can be reviewed.  They say the entire project should be subject to a town meeting vote. More than 150 people showed up at a forum on the sewer project held by selectmen Feb. 23. Tempers ran high at that session as well as last week’s board meeting, when board member Ronald Bergstrom stepped down as chairman over criticism of his behavior at the Feb. 23 meeting.

            Fran Meaney, co-founder of the Chatham Concerned Taxpayers, said the group contends that last May’s vote was invalid --- one of the charges in its appeal to the state --- and that town officials are proceeding at their own risk.  If the vote is declared void, any expenditures would be “unauthorized and illegitimate,” he said in an e-mail Tuesday.

            “That town officials are refusing to put the entire plan before a town meeting before beginning to implement it is an autocratic usurpation of the democratic process,” he said.  “After all, this is the most important and most expensive project in town history that taxpayers will be paying for for decades.”

            "I am extremely disappointed that town officials have seen fit to move forward a year ahead of schedule without having projected costs vetted by a certified independent accountant, which are at the very heart of this debate,” project opponent Elaine Gibbs said in an e-mail.  “Beginning in 2012 costs will  impact every taxpayer and homeowner for the next 40 years, whether or not they are ever sewered.  The USDA grant and loan are available to us through 2015 and are therefore not an issue.”

            The work on George Ryder Road is expected to take three weeks and will necessitate periodic closures of the road. Work is being done there first because the road will serve as a major detour route when work is being done on Route 28, Anderson said.

            Work will also begin next week on Meadow View Road, at the intersection with Vineyard Avenue west to Barn Hill Road.  After that section is completed, work will begin on Vineyard Avenue between Meadow View and Route 28 and is expected to last until late May.

            Low-pressure sewer mains will also be installed along Summer Hill Lane, Plum Daffy Lane, Marcus Lane and a portion of the lower section of Barn Hill Road beginning about March 22.

            Preparation work along Route 28 is also expected to begin March 22, Duncanson said.  Preparation involves cutting the road surface and laying out where digging will take place to ensure it is in accordance with surveys.

            “Right now it looks like the layout goes from March 22 to roughly April 2,” he said.  “And it looks like they start to dig on Route 28 about April 5.”

            The Route 28 work will begin in three locations: west of the Crowell Road intersection, at Vineyard Avenue, and at Cockle Cove Creek near the Pit Stop restaurant.  The work will require road closures, and detail police officers will direct traffic to detour routes.  Local traffic will be allowed access.

            Message boards are now located at George Ryder Road and Route 28 (near Job Lot) and further along George Ryder Road, and will later be placed along Route 28 at Route 137 (Meetinghouse Road) and near the Crowell Road intersection.  The boards will provide updates on the construction and detours.

            It’s not likely that the entire stretch of Route 28 along the town’s south side will be closed at any one time, Duncanson said.  Traffic will be allowed as far as possible beyond detours, for access to local shops and homes.  The information should be flashed on the message boards.

            “We looked at a bunch of different alternatives to make this as painless as possible,” said Anderson, noting that the police department has been working with Duncanson, the contractor and the state to develop traffic plans. 

            Construction crews are expected to work between 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Anderson said.  All roads will be open evenings and weekends.

            The construction schedule is subject to delays because of weather, Duncanson added.  All road work will end prior to Memorial Day, probably a few days before the weekend since that’s when traffic starts to increase, he said.  The project will resume after Labor Day.

            A website is being set up to provide regular updates about the project as well as road closure information.  Until the site is up, information will be posted on the town’s website, Duncanson said. Regular updates will also be posted on Channel 18.

            Both Anderson and Duncanson asked for the public’s patience and cooperation “during this environmentally important project.”

3/11/10