Culverts – Unsexy But Vital Infrastructure Getting Some Attention

By June 2026, Amherst will have two new culverts associated with the Fort River watershed – one to conduct Muddy Brook under Potwine Road just west of the Plum Brook Recreation Area and the other slightly further upstream to conduct Plum Brook under Middle Street just south of the Ken Cuddeback Trailhead at the Plum Springs Conservation Area. The work will be funded by a $1,179,700 state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Action Grant. Design and permitting work has been completed and was funded by a $169,250 grant from the same program. These grants are part of a Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs program aimed at improving flood resiliency and water quality.

Assistant Superintendent of Public Works Amy Rusiecki provided the Indy a tour of the Muddy Brook site, as well as some details about the project. She encourages residents to visit the project webpage for further updates and to offer feedback via a survey. 

Construction documents will be going out to bid very soon with the hope that no Town funding will be required, although that will not be certain until bids are received. Construction is expected to last several weeks at each site and will probably occur in either the summer of 2025 or spring of 2026. It is not known at this time whether road closures and diversions will be necessary during construction. 

The project involves replacing deteriorating 2-3 foot diameter metal pipes that no longer provide sufficient water throughput after heavy rainfalls. This has resulted in sinkholes as water flows over and around the culvert, as for example on the south side of the road on Potwine Lane. The new design will create a much larger concrete culvert with a capacity to withstand 100 year storm events (as projected by more recent climate data). When completed, the new culverts will protect the banks of these brooks from the short duration but high intensity flows that occur after heavy precipitation. This will benefit both the wildlife that rely on these habitats as well as the human population that relies on the passability of the overlying roads. 

A third culvert was studied but will not be replaced as part of this grant. The culvert on West Pomeroy Road, to the west of the Hickory Ridge parking lot, proved to require a more complex solution. Designs for its replacement, however, are also hoped to be completed as part of this grant with plans to apply for future funding to complete the actual work. Amherst is home to over 100 culverts, many of which are around 50 years old. Rusiecki notes that about a dozen of these are “high on our radar in terms of needing attention” as they are “failing due to a combination of age/material (metal culverts corroding over time) and being undersized for the size and duration of the storms we are now experiencing.”

She said she hopes to inform the public about both this critical infrastructure and the effects of climate change that are, in part, driving the upgrades. Educational signs have been placed at the sites and further public engagement is anticipated.