Selectboard votes for culverts to fix Spear Street flood damage

Replacing the Spear Street bridge over Muddy Hollow Brook is proving to be at least as difficult, expensive and time consuming as was predicted immediately after Hurricane Beryl washed it away in early July — if not more so.

A selectboard discussion about construction options that had been planned to last for 20 minutes this past Monday night, Aug. 26, lasted for more than an hour and half.

The town’s conundrum came down to a decision about whether to replace the one 10-foot culvert pipe, that had served where Spear Street crosses the brook since before 1972, with two 10-foot culvert pipes — or whether to build an actual bridge.

The lengthy deliberations over the decision were warranted because this is not an easy decision. And the choice about which solution the town would go with had to be made fast.

Chris Hunt, Vermont Agency of Transportation project manager, told the board that constructing a bridge at the site would take three years and cost about $3 million. If the town responded quickly, Hunt was relatively confident the state had a single-lane temporary bridge it would loan the town for three years while a bridge was built.

Typically, the town would be on the hook for 10 percent of that cost, or approximately $300,000.

If the town fixes the washed-out brook crossing with the 10-foot diameter culvert pipes that have already been ordered, delivered and are waiting on the side of Spear Street just south of where a huge ravine divides Spear Street in two, the state will pay for all the cost of the culvert solution, which is also predicted to be $300,000.

But Charlotte needs to make the decision to proceed with the culvert solution quickly to get that state money. Normally, the town would have to pay for all the cost of repairing Spear Street at Muddy Hollow Brook, but the state will pay for this with emergency funding. But the emergency funding goes away April 7, so the work must be completed by then.

Because of Vermont winters, it is unlikely repairs can happen after fall. Hunt said it effectively means the deadline for installing culverts is the beginning of November, not April.

“My warning to you will be that we need to proceed as quickly as possible, in terms of getting a contractor on board. Everyone’s busy,” Hunt said. “Anything that’s not done within the emergency period will be 100 percent on the town.”

However, Dave Matthews, principal engineer with Civil Engineering Associates of South Burlington, gave a much lower estimate for building a bridge. His estimate was that a free-standing concrete bridge would cost approximately $810,000.

Also, the board needed to consider the long-term costs of the two options.

The culverts are predicted to last 75 years, Marshall said. A bridge should last for 100 years.

Maintenance of the twin culverts option would be almost $13,000 a year, or about $554,000 over 100 years at today’s prices. Maintenance of a bridge would be about $11,400 a year, or $492,000 over 100 years.

In response to a question from board member Kelly Devine, Marshall confirmed that his analysis put the total lifetime cost of the culvert solution at $1.28 million and the total lifetime coast of a bridge at $1.302 million. That means the difference in the total costs of the two options is about $22,000.

Devine said she was concerned about the culvert option because indications are that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. She was surprised culverts were an option to fix the problem because she felt the “tenor” coming from the state was that it wanted “to stop spending money to fix things and then having to spend it again.”

“The issue of businesses that are south of that bridge is a considerable concern,” said Peter Joslin, who was watching the meeting via Zoom. “I’m guessing that, even if there’s a temporary bridge, people would tend to avoid it, so I think that’s something that’s really important for the selectboard to consider.”

Chair Jim Faulkner said he was hearing people asking why the selectboard hadn’t done anything about the damage yet. “I think we’ve got to go forward,” he said.

In addition to the businesses at the corner of Spear Street and Hinesburg Road that are hurting with the road closed, Carrie Spear mentioned, via Zoom, other businesses like Adam’s Berry Farm, and that having a temporary bridge for three years would be a problem for fire and rescue vehicles.

“There are an amazing amount of people who use Spear Street going to the hospital from the southern end of Vermont,” Spear said.

Also joining the discussion via Zoom was state Rep. Chea Waters Evans, who said she was concerned about going with culverts to fix the problem because the road to her house was fixed five years ago, and now it’s washed away again. She supported putting in a bridge.

“This is not going to be the last flood,” Evans said. “These hundred-year events look like they’ll be coming yearly.”

Board member Frank Tenney said the culvert that washed out had lasted 50 years, and it was just one pipe that wasn’t reinforced with concrete, as would be the case now.

Eventually, the board voted 4-1, with Devine casting the lone nay vote, to apply to the state for permission to fix the problem with culverts.

Another twist to the complicated situation is that the state may not approve the culvert application, but Hunt appeared cautiously optimistic it would be approved.