A Path To Pond Maintenance

By Andrew Gorosko

The town is building an earthen road to link Elm Drive to Hawley Pond, to create a stable accessway for the heavy equipment used to maintain the scenic pond at the Ram Pasture.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said July 8 the earthen road is being constructed with a rigid base to support the weight of heavy equipment, such as excavators, that will be used to maintain the pond. Unless a rigid road base is in place, that equipment could become mired in the turf alongside the pond. The new accessway leaves Elm Drive near its intersection with Birch Rise Drive.

After the earthen road is complete, grass will be planted on the road to reestablish the site’s scenic aspect, Mr Hurley said. Perforated rigid plastic matting may be buried slightly below ground level to provide a stable road base, but allow grass to grow there, he said.

Following a recent dredging of Hawley Pond, the stream that feeds the pond discharged a large amount of sediment into the pond’s mouth, creating a silty delta there. That stream and its tributaries collect stormwater discharges from drainage catch basins alongside paved streets in the area. The draining water carries road sand into Hawley Pond, causing pond sedimentation and the subsequent need for dredging to maintain the pond’s water quality.

In conjunction with the road construction project, the delta will be removed, Mr Hurley said. He estimated the volume of accumulated sediments there at about 200 cubic yards.

The town will construct a sediment trap at the mouth of the pond, which will act as a physical barrier to retain sediments that would otherwise enter the pond. Having a sediment trap in place at the mouth of the pond would allow the town to repeatedly clean out that trap, thus reducing the need for major pond dredgings, Mr Hurley said.

The new road will provide heavy equipment with easy access to that sediment trap, he said.

In addition to building the new road and installing the sediment trap in the pond, workers have installed a new stormwater drainage line between Elm Drive and the pond. The new large-diameter ribbed plastic drainage line replaces a rotted metallic drainage line. The new drainage line lies just south of the new access road.

Last January, workers completed a three-month dredging project, in which they removed more than 6,000 cubic yards of accumulated sediments from Hawley Pond. Hawley Pond is now between two and four feet deep. The pond, owned by the Newtown Cemetery Association, is used for ice skating in the winter.

Before that dredging, the pond had become a gigantic, shallow murky puddle rife with heavy aquatic vegetation. The richly organic material excavated from the pond was stockpiled at the town public works yard, where it is mixed with other earth materials in the manufacture of synthetic topsoil. The town road crew uses the manufactured topsoil for earthen fill in different spots around town. The fertile material supports plant growth.