Town gets grant to fix culverts
The state has granted the town $430,200for culvert repairs on Dashville Road and Hardenburg Road.
The state has granted the town $430,200 toward $561,100 in costs for culvert repairs on Dashville Road and Hardenburg Road.
The projects were discussed during a meeting last week, with Supervisor Shannon Harris saying after the session that the town’s share of project costs will be covered by the use of Highway Department equipment and crews.
“These two culverts ... represent both an inconvenience in terms of community flooding as well as a habitat impediment,” she said.
Funding will come from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program for tributary restoration and resiliency.
The projects were part of a study conducted last year, with the application noting that the primary goal is the restoration of herring and eel habitats by removing barriers for those species that migrate up and down the streams
between the Hudson River and inland water bodies.
“By restoring the tributaries of the estuary to free-f lowing conditions,” officials wrote, “aquatic connectivity, water quality, and reduced f looding hazards will be prompt and positive results of the replacement. ... The funds will support the entire construction process, including potential easements for abutting properties.”
Earlier this year, town officials noted that the project would also help with the long-term goal of flood control on rural roads, where there has been property damage.
“The stated goal of this is a balance between aquatic ... (and) help flooding issues and it’s supposed to help towns with their maintenance,” consulting engineer Dan Valentine said .“It’ s like an allstakeholders approach to consider the needs of ... both the human community and the natural community.”
Work on Dash ville Road would replace the corrugated metal pipe, listed in “OK” condition, with a four- sided steelreinforced box that is 26feet long by 4-feet tall, which would allow water to f low under the road.
The project on Hardenburg Road would replace t he metal pipe, listed in “poor” condition, with a steel- reinforced concrete box that is 15 feet long by 3-feet tall.
In a report by consulting f irm Tighe & Bond naming the work site, there were 16 culverts studied, with six listed as priority projects including the two selected for the grant application based on creeks that have aquatic l i fe t hat move i nland f rom the Hudson River.
Other priority culverts are on new Salem Road, Salem Street, Rose Lane and Union Center Road.