The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
A river runs under it
Unusual waterway travels beneath Hinsdale School
WINSTED — Some call it a culvert, others a tunnel, but whatever the subterranean concrete conduit is known as, it is apparently the only one in the state carries a brook under a public school.
The waterway enters the tunnel north of the Mary P. Hinsdale School at 15 Hinsdale Ave., and flows under a parking lot and then 200 feet under the western side of the building.
The “Gilbert Home Brook” then travels under both Spencer and Main streets before it empties into the Mad River near the bridge at Division Street.
The tunnel became a pertinent topic in April after the Capitol Region Education Council released a final report outlining the condition of the Hinsdale School.
The Winchester Board of Education had asked the council to research the cost to renovate and reopen the school which was closed in June 2016.
The tunnel is the first item in the council’s report.
While records aren’t clear on how long ago the tunnel was built, a historic photograph from the late 1800s shows a culvert under Hinsdale Street opens into small pond. The now-gone Fourth District School can be seen in the background.
The photo details a spillway that collects the water as it flows across the pond. It then enters a rock-lined opening, into a second culvert, and finally reaches the Mad River.
The pond was later filled in, and the two culvert openings were apparently connected.
An addition to the school was built in 1950, which may have been when the brook was harnessed and became an underground waterway. The expanded school welcomed students in fall 1951.
“It’s a square concrete culvert, almost big enough to stand in,” said Town Manager Robert Geiger said of the structure.
About why a culvert, or tunnel, if you will, was built under the school, Gieger said, “It’s likely that it was easier to build over it,” than to divert it.
Winchester Superintendent of Schools Melony Brady-Shanley said recently that she did not know when the tunnel was built.
An additional oddity is an interior bulkhead door that was installed inside the school to allow access to the brook.
“I don’t know why the door is there,” said Hinsdale School Renovation Committee member and longtime resident, Steve Vaill. “Perhaps it’s to pluck debris from the water.”
He said he had never heard of a stream running under a school, much less a bulkhead door leading to it.
“In high water, it’s like having a screen door in a submarine,” Vaill said.
A stairway from the door descends about 10 feet, into a cellar-like space, he noted. “That’s where the water goes through,” under the school.
“Flood water has gone into the school,” Vaill added.
He recently presented a document to the renovation committee lists the years when floods damaged the Hinsdale school: 1955, 1975, 1985, 1987 and 1988.
The information was compiled from reports published in the Register Citizen and the former Winsted Evening Citizen.
To begin the renovation project, the committee on Oct. 23 approved the hiring of the architectural firm, Silver, Petrucelli & Associates Inc of Hamden.
The committee asked the firm to prepare schematics and other nonconstruction items prior to a special referendum expected to be held late this winter. Four other firms also bid on the project.
The referendum will ask voters to approve funding, expected to be about $2.9 million, based on 21 renovation projects that were outlined by the council.
The report provided guidance to the district on design, construction cost estimates and other project management support. One of the proposed projects is the replacement of the bulkhead door for $3,000.
The issue of flooding was included in only one of the bid proposals.
Friar Architects of Farmington noted that the project should include a flood management strategy. “This firm feels this is imperative to this process,” it wrote.
Their bid document advises that the work would be done in partnership with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the state Board of Education’s Office of School Construction Grants.
Several members of the committee responded to Friar Architects' recommendation at their October 23 meeting. They said the information the firm had provided on flood management amounted to “scare tactics about water” and concern about “rating of the culvert.”
Jeff Caiola, the supervising civil engineer for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said if the school district plans to apply for state funds to help finance the renovation, “they will have to get a flood management certificate before any construction can begin.”
“It’s not unusual to have tunnels under buildings in Connecticut,” said Robert Gilmore, a coworker of Caiola’s. Asked about one running under a school, he responded “that is a little unusual.”
The district does plan to apply for a state grant of about $1.3 million according to the council’s report.
The next meeting of the renovation committee will be held on Nov. 20 at 5 p.m. at Winsted Town Hall