Town of New Boston
Special Selectmen’s Meeting
March 18, 2010
A meeting of the Board of Selectmen held at the New Boston Town Hall was called to order at 3:00 p.m. by Chairman Christine Quirk.
Also present were Selectmen Rodney Towne and Dwight Lovejoy, Town Administrator Burton Reynolds, Road Agent John Riendeau and Nic Strong, abutter to the washed out culverts, and taking the minutes.
Christine Quirk noted that the meeting was to allow John Riendeau to give a report on the recently washed out culverts on Lyndeborough Road.
John Riendeau noted that Dan MacDonald and himself had a conference call with Kirsten Pulkinnen at NH DES, and that Dan MacDonald had called Chris Pope, New Hampshire's homeland security and emergency management director, and Chris Pope had called DES to get things moving along. John Riendeau said that Ms. Pulkinnen had promised that this project would get her full attention when the information got to her desk. He noted that she had said that he could go ahead and put in a culvert, backfill and get the road open as an emergency, then get the required permits after the fact. John Riendeau was concerned, however, that once a hydraulic analysis was completed and the wetlands scientist had prepared the permit application, if anything was wrong the state would make him tear
the whole thing out. John Riendeau thought that it would not take much longer to wait and get the permit beforehand and make sure that it was done right the first time. He noted that this would keep the road closed for 2 - 3 weeks longer but would avoid the possibility of having to tear out anything that did not meet the state's requirements.
John Riendeau noted that he already had Michie Corp. working on an hydraulic analysis and had thought it would be completed that day. He noted that it was going to take a little longer than first thought but he had given Michie Corp. Ms. Pulkinnen's email address so they could send the study directly to her. John Riendeau stated that he had spoken to a wetlands scientist with Stoney Ridge with whom he had worked to get prices on permitting for replacing the lower culverts on Lyndeborough Road. The wetlands scientist was available to start immediately and thought the permit could be ready to be submitted by the end of the following week at a cost of $3,700 +/-. John Riendeau noted that the company was one recommended by Roch Larochelle, Road Committee, and was out of
Alton so the mileage might make that price go up a little bit.
John Riendeau explained that he had some information regarding the size of the various culverts in this area, noting that he had looked at the South Hill Road culverts, the culverts that had washed out, the culverts in the Strong driveway, and the culverts below the Townes' pit on Lyndeborough Road. He stated that he had calculated the square footage of each set of culverts, as follows:
South Hill Road |
stone culvert |
24 s.f. |
Strong driveway |
concrete and plastic pipe |
26 s.f. |
Lower Lyndeborough Road |
2 x 48" |
25.3 s.f. |
Lyndeborough Road washed out |
4' metal squash |
12.56 s.f. |
John Riendeau went on to say that Michie Corp. currently had a made up 4' x 10' box culvert that would be 39 s.f. but he was concerned that using something that large could create problems for the downstream culverts by letting too much water through. He was waiting to see what the hydraulic study said before seeing if the state would allow something smaller in consideration of the Strong culverts and the lower Lyndeborough Road culverts.
John Riendeau said that the pre-made box culvert still needed a couple of pieces to be made to go on the ends and to make the headwalls, noting that the high side would require a 7' headwall and the low side would need a 3 ½' header. He said that the cost of the culvert would be $33,396. He said again that he hoped to be able to use something smaller perhaps with a 4' x 8' opening or 5' x 6'. The cost should be a little less in that case too. He had not asked for prices on that size yet, preferring to wait until DES said what size was to be used. John Riendeau noted that Michie would be able to make any size and would have a 10 - 14 day production schedule if everything went well. He noted that Ms. Pulkinnen would get back to him as soon as she could
and he hoped the hydraulic analysis would be emailed to her later in the day.
Burton Reynolds asked what would happen if the state required a larger size culvert, would the two downstream locations have to be replaced with bigger ones? Rodney Towne did not think that would be the situation because the culverts did not act like a dam. John Riendeau said that the amount of water that went through in this event had gone all at once when the culverts let go. He noted that the South Hill culverts might hold back a little water and said that the pipe that had been in place on Lyndeborough Road had definitely held back water because it was 7' from the top of the pipe to the road and the water had been almost over the road before the culvert washed out. Rodney Towne acknowledged that this culvert had been acting as a dam in that case.
John Riendeau said that if he had to use a 4' x 10' box in this location it was a lot bigger than the culverts in the Strong driveway and those lower down Lyndeborough Road. He stated that he had gathered this information so that when he spoke with Kirsten Pulkinnen he would be prepared. His thought was that he did not want to go any smaller than the Strong culverts and the ones below on Lyndeborough Road.
Christine Quirk was concerned that the Town would take the brunt of washouts for the Strong driveway and the lower Lyndeborough Road culverts if a larger structure had to be installed. Rodney Towne noted that there was a huge catchment area between South Hill and Lyndeborough Roads. John Riendeau said that this area also took water from the area of the Marvell property and that water came into Meadow Brook from the Barss property on Mont Vernon Road. Nic Strong mentioned that the water on the Strong property did not just come from Meadow Brook but right before her driveway a seasonal stream entered that also brought water from Hooper Hill behind Chucky Houghton's old property and the Baptist Church. She noted that her driveway had to handle Meadow Brook and the
additional seasonal runoff.
Dwight Lovejoy asked if the replacement culvert on Lyndeborough Road could use a manifold or restriction of some sort to hold back some water. John Riendeau said that would be classified as a dam and the Town did not want to get into having a dam. He said they should wait to see what the state said about sizing. He said they may tell him that the older culverts were inadequately sized and noted that the state did not worry about what is downstream.
Burton Reynolds said that there was money in a previous warrant article for improvements on Lyndeborough Road and there may be some FEMA money available for the project. John Riendeau said that if the state required a larger size culvert the Town may be able to get mitigation funding. Burton Reynolds stated that Lyndeborough's experience with mitigation was not too inspiring. He noted that the warrant article was worded in such a fashion that the funds would be available to use for this project. Rodney Towne thought there should be no problem with this since the funds were encumbered and the warrant article had not been particular about the location.
John Riendeau next asked the Selectmen how they wanted him to proceed in finding a contractor for the project, and if it was OK to get the company started on the wetlands permitting process. Rodney Towne thought it would be fine to get the permitting started. He asked if the price quoted was for the permit for just the washed out culverts. John Riendeau said that it was. Rodney Towne thought it would be a good idea to get the permitting done for the lower Lyndeborough Road culverts at the same time. John Riendeau said he would rather get them going on the washed out culverts and worry about the others later.
With regard to contractors, John Riendeau stated that he would wait to know the size of the culvert required so he would know the type of work that would be involved. He stated that when he did the Bedford Road culvert replacement the previous year he had contacted Alan Brown, John Neville and D&S Excavating for prices since they were good sized companies used to installing box culverts. He did not want to use someone too small. He offered that he would like to do the same thing this time and added he would probably send one to Skip Gomes too. He stated that the alternative would be to advertise in the paper. John Riendeau asked the Board for direction. Rodney Towne stated that John Riendeau should ask the companies he had mentioned but post on the
website that the job was going to bid. Burton Reynolds stated that the theory generally was that there would be enough local people qualified to do the job that the Town knew and had worked with in the past rather than advertising in the Union Leader and receiving hundreds of bids from unknown entities.
John Riendeau said in closing that Michie had suggested using a concrete headwall on the high side of the culvert all the way up. He noted that it was currently all granite. He stated that ideally he would use RediRock but that was very expensive. He went on to say that a concrete headwall could be built out with the granite that was left.
Burton Reynolds confirmed that the $33K John Riendeau had mentioned previously was for the box culvert alone, not the whole project. John Riendeau said that was correct. Christine Quirk asked what if a smaller culvert came in for $33K. John Riendeau said he did not know how much of a discount Michie had given him for the pre-made box culvert. He noted that the Town paid $28K for the box on Bog Brook Road which was 6' x 12' a couple of years ago. The Bedford Road culverts were around $20K each for 4' x 8' or 5' x 8'.
John Riendeau noted that on an unrelated matter he had received a price for asphalt from Continental Paving of $9 a ton more than last year. He said that towns like New Boston would not be able to do as much paving a year as they would like.
John Riendeau noted that he would keep everyone informed with regard to the Lyndeborough Road project and would hopefully get a permit by the end of the next week. He noted that once the hydraulic analysis was done and the sizing was confirmed he would be able to go ahead and do the construction as an emergency with the permit after the fact, but would be confident that he was using the right size pipe.
(Nic Strong left the meeting at this point.)
Respectfully submitted,
Nicola Strong
Planning Coordinator
Minutes approved: 3/29/10
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