A week from Monday, the long-anticipated construction of an expanded sewer system for the center of town will finally begin, town officials say.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan told Selectmen this week that Ricciardi Bros, the general contractor for the project, will start work on Monday, Oct. 17, beginning with Pond Road, a narrow thoroughfare whose excavation will immediately disrupt traffic in and out of the town library parking lot, as well as the buses and drop-off cars arriving and departing Bromfield School twice a day.
“It will be pretty impossible for an 18-wheeler to get through town once this starts.”
—Town Administrator Tim Bragan
"There are going to be inconveniences," said Bragan, who also announced aggressive plans for communicating day-to-day developments to residents, especially the parents of school age children, and for coordinating the work with other town boards and departments.
Bragan and town officials have been preparing for this day since 2009, when Town Meeting voted to create the new system and borrow the money to build it. Work was delayed first by disagreements with the Department of Environmental Protection over design of the treatment plant on Massachusetts Avenue and later by the need for a Special Town Meeting in August to approve additional borrowing for the project. But a final hurdle was cleared in September when the DEP finally agreed to let Harvard borrow the $2.5 million it needs to complete the project from a low-interest state revolving fund.
The new system will be made up of a network of pipes to collect wastewater from roughly 70 homes and businesses and an improved wastewater plant to treat it. Bragan told the Press that roadwork and pipe laying will continue until "plow ready" snow arrives. He said the goal is to finish as much work as possible around the schools before moving to other parts of the common, where the problems "will pale in comparison."
Work on the treatment plant will likely begin when roadwork is no longer possible. The Department of Environmental Protection requires that the system be operational by June 30, 2012.
The coordination of contractors, schools, police and other services will be handled by a working group chaired by Bragan and Public Works Director Rich Nota, which met for the first time this week. Members include project engineers from Norfolk Ram and Samson & Wesson, managers and foremen from Ricciardi Bros and representatives from town boards and departments.
To manage traffic, Harvard will hire additional police details as needed to supplement its regular force. Last month, Selectmen preemptively appointed 22 additional part-time officers from surrounding towns to the Harvard police force in a bid to keep the cost of extra workers within town salary ranges. Bragan says he has also asked the state to provide signs to warn traffic entering from Boxborough, Still River, and Ayer circle to seek other routes.
"It will be pretty impossible for an 18-wheeler to get through town once this starts," he added.
Oversight for the project will be handled by a downsized Town Center Sewer Committee, now that the newly appointed Sewer Commission has said—and voted, at its first meeting—that it does not want the job.
This week, Selectmen unanimously agreed to take back responsibility for construction of the system and voted to delegate oversight of the project to a three-member committee that will include Tim Bragan as ex-officio member. The committee is currently chaired by Chris Ashley and will include one other member, who has yet to be named. Two is a quorum, Bragan said, so the group can continue to meet until a third member is found.
Residents who want to stay on top of developments should start with the town website, where they will find a large red banner to direct them to several services, said executive assistant Julie Doucet. Road closings and changes to traffic patterns and school bus routes will be posted there. Residents will be able to sign up for daily emails from Town Hall, she said, and parents who have already signed up for the school newsletter will find information and website links in that publication as well. And for those with questions and complaints, the town website will publish an email address that will direct messages to Bragan and Doucet.
The new system is seen as a crucial to plans to revitalize town center, including the renovation of Town Hall, Hildreth House, and the old library and the new services from town businesses.
"It's going to be hell," said Bragan, who later reached for a different metaphor: "It's no different than remodeling your kitchen; first you have to tear it up," he said.