The replacement of a 16 foot wide drainage culvert was completed in early December 2009.  D'Allessandro Corp. completed the project in 6 weeks.  The project was delayed on a few occassions due to heavy rains.  The project consisted of the removal of the existing 16' wide by 40 foot long steel structure and the installation of a new 16 foot wide by 43 foot long aluminum one. 

     Before the actual project could begin, dewatering had to be established to control the flow of water around the work area.  This was accomplished by inserting a 5 foot by-pass pipe underneath the existing culvert.  The construction crew then used sand bags to divert the flow of the brook into the by-pass pipe.  Removal of the old structure was relatively simple due to the extent of rot along the footing that the old culvert pipe had.  The major obstacle throughout the entire project was a 12 inch, high pressure natural gas main that ran on top of the culvert.  This gas main could not be shut off due to the fact that it is the only supply of natural gas for many towns on the south shore.  Towns east of us like Duxbury, Cohasset and Scituate rely on this gas main to provide them with natural gas.

Once the old culvert was removed a new footing was poured next to the old one and the two were anchored together with a channel formed in the new footing to allow the new culvert pipe to be permanently fixed to the footing.  The new culvert was assembled in place and was designed to be longer to allow room on the north side of Belmont St. for the placement of a sidewalk.  The headwall on the north (upstream) side was replaced using the same granite blocks the were there originally.  There was no headwall on the south side so the company installed gabian baskets.  gabian baskets are 3 foot wide by 2 feet tall by 6 feet long wire baskets that are filled with 2 to 4 inch stone and stacked on top of one another.  Once the headwalls were placed the structure was backfilled and graded.  Two additional catch basins were installed with a manhole to receive storm water run-off from the street.  The roadway was paved and new guardrails were installed.  We'd like to thank the area residents for their patience as we had to detour the road before and during construction.