Following their review of plans for a town project to improve stream drainage at Monitor Hill Road, the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) has granted the work a wetlands/watercourses protection permit.

At a May 24 IWC meeting, Town Engineer Ronald Bolmer explained that the town plans to replace two deteriorated corrugated metal drainage pipes that pass beneath Monitor Hill Road with two new plastic drainage pipes that will be sized to carry comparable stream flow. Monitor Hill Road is a half-mile-long residential dead-end street that extends eastward from Orchard Hill Road. Monitor Hill Road has 17 homes in the neighborhood, which includes several rear lots.

Mr Bolmer explained that the existing 140-foot-long pipes will be replaced by 80-foot-long pipes. Those pipes carry an intermittent stream beneath Monitor Hill Road. Those pipes are located about one-quarter mile from Monitor Hill Road's intersection with Orchard Hill Road.

Mr Bolmer said that rip-rap would be placed near the inlets and outlets of the drainage pipes to stabilize them. He said he expects the project to be put out to competitive bidding in June, with drainage work possibly starting by mid-July, when water levels in the stream are low.

The drainage pipe replacements for the stream are part of a larger project to improve the stormwater drainage along Monitor Hill Road in the 2017-18 fiscal year. Current plans call for resurfacing that road in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

In approving the permit for drainage pipe installation, IWC members placed eight conditions on the endorsement.

Those conditions include that soil erosion and sedimentation controls be installed before construction begins and be maintained while construction proceeds; the limits of planned physical disturbance at the site must be marked, inspected, and approved before construction starts; any changes to the site plans must be approved in advance by the town; and a copy of the approved plans for the project must be kept at the site at all times, among other requirements.