The Peterborough Select Board tabled discussion of the construction timeline to update a historic canal downtown on Tuesday.
Assistant Town Administrator Seth MacLean pitched a $1.2 million replacement and relocation of stormwater drainage infrastructure from underneath Maggie’s Market to the public right-of-way.
If approved, the project could start quickly and close parts of Main Street and Depot Street for three weeks each.
Select board members said they supported the project, but they said they couldn’t vote on Tuesday or provide a timeline for one. They wouldn’t say what was keeping them from a vote.
“We have some work left to do,” Select Board member Bill Kennedy said. “I think it will become evident in the future. In the near future, we’re really pushing on this project to address a number of issues we have been confronted with.”
Chris Anderson and Brad Miller, the owners of Roy’s Market, initially raised the concern to the select board in February while preparing for construction at Maggie’s Market. Using the municipal canal system beneath their property for town stormwater management presents a liability, they said. They have also expressed concerns about the risk of flooding in colder weather caused by the current infrastructure.
“It addresses this immediate issue, and it stops the conveyance of water onto private property, ours and our neighbors,'” Anderson said when asked about the project on Tuesday. “It stops the sort of future liability associated with that water.”
The town investigated the canal, which dates back to the pre-Civil War era, to map the location and use of the system and determined that rerouting the stormwater infrastructure would be the best investment.
In the spring, the town began working with consulting engineers to design a solution to move stormwater management through downtown under town property.
The new design ends the use of the historic canal and replaces stormwater management with a 42-inch stormwater pipe under the public right-of-way, running from Depot Street to Main Street and connecting to the canal under the Main Street Bridge. This allows the town to convey stormwater under town property with an updated system.
MacLean said the project planning is nearly complete, and crews could break ground this fall. The town spent months working with contractors on the design, environmental impacts and construction plans.
“This is queued up and could go very quickly,” he said.
MacLean said Mountainshade LLC, the construction company the town plans to work with, could work throughout the winter if needed.
“It could start in a week, maybe two, or it could start later than that, as things have to get worked out,” MacLean said.
To expedite the project, MacLean said, the select board allowed the town to skip the bidding process and work with Mountainshade LLC, with which the town has an established relationship.
“Recognizing the challenges associated with designing, permitting, procuring and constructing a project of this magnitude within a single construction season, we worked with Mountainshade LLC during design development because of their demonstrated experience delivering complex municipal infrastructure projects in Peterborough,” MacLean said.
MacLean said this project would require improvements to stormwater infrastructure, water utility, sanitary sewer and utility coordination, including sidewalk reconstruction and traffic control.
As of now, the project would span six weeks, with Main Street closed for two to three weeks, followed by Depot Street for the same duration. Mountainshade LLC suggested that Main Street traffic could be detoured to Veteran Way, according to MacLean.
The $1.2 million project would be funded by the downtown tax increment finance account and an expendable trust for bridges, dams and culverts. The select board would have to vote to approve these funds, which would fully deplete the downtown TIF and pull $245,000 from the trust.
This would delay other projects in town by diverting funds from work on Lobacki Drive, Old Dublin Road and Pine Street.
“Those projects, full transparency, we have some flexibility on those,” MacLean said.