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Concord Journal, top of page one, banner headline,
Thursday, September 28, 2000

Middlesex redesigns bridge over troubled wetlands in Estabrook

By BETSY LEVINSON
STAFF WRITER

Seeking to pacify a group of local environmentalists that opposes its expansion plans, Middlesex School officials recently submitted a revised design for a bridge that spans portions of a wetland at the edge of Estabrook Woods.

 

The new design is in response to area citizens and alumni of the private school who oppose the 8-year-old plan to build soccer fields and tennis courts east of the existing Lowell Road campus.

According to school business manager Jim Saltonstall, the new bridge provides for greater migration for two endangered species that may exist in a nearby vernal pool. The new design also would eliminate the need to fill wetlands.

Saltonstall said the school is seeking a letter from the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program indicating the bridge would not adversely impact the blue-spotted salamander and the spotted turtle. The state wildlife program is a division of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

If the program director, Patricia Huckery, backs the school's contention that the endangered species are not impacted by construction of the bridge, the development plan will be submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection for review.

A history of the project, which first surfaced in 1992, is a chronicle of decisions both in favor of and opposed to the plan to develop 46 acres in addition to the 330-acre campus on Lowell Road.

Last year, the school was granted a superseding order from the state DEP to allow the project to proceed. The order overturned a 5-year-old Concord Natural Resources Commission denial of a permit to build in a portion of wetland.

But a group of 10 citizens appealed to overturn the DEP order, and received support from an Middlesex alumni group hoping to preserve Estabrook Woods in pristine form. A status conference is scheduled for Oct. 3 between the school and citizens at the DEP.

Saltonstall said he asked the DEP to postpone further deliberations in light of the new bridge design and the prospective letter from the endangered species officer.

The attorney for the citizen group that opposes the project, Joanna Roberts, said Tuesday that the group is studying the bridge redesign, and crafting a response.

"It's bigger, longer and higher," said Roberts of the design. "There are going to be significant construction impacts to the area, and there is concern about vehicle runoff into the wetland and the vernal pool."

Roberts said the group is meeting this week to arrive at a response to the submission.

"We are evaluating the new proposal regarding the impact to endangered species, as well as to the wetland," said Roberts.

Saltonstall said there was no evidence of the salamander according to a specialist hired by the school. "But we felt that if there were continued questions about the existence of these species, we would review the design so there would be no impact on them. It seemed prudent so that even if they were there, we would better accommodate them."

Saltonstall said the bridge has been lengthened from 150 to 300 feet, and lowered. "The span now goes from one piece of upland to another," he said. "It starts and ends at higher points so there is no question the species are not impacted by the bridge." He said an existing dirt causeway that separates two sections of wetland will remain intact.

Engineers also changed the construction so that the bridge will be built on pylons and cantilevered "so that there is no impact on the existing wetland on either side of the causeway."

In response to a DEP site visit in 1997, the school revised its plan to cross a stream and surrounding wetlands by a bridge instead of a road and culvert combination. The school sought the NRC permit since the bridge would result in the loss of 1,650 square feet of wetlands, but all other work would be limited to the 100-foot buffer zone next to the wetlands, according to the DEP.

The new bridge design calls for a metal structure approximately 30 feet wide. The school said the bridge would require no fill in wetlands because the foundations would be sunk in the wetland buffer zone.

Opponents of the project say the new design shows a higher bridge with a longer "causeway" or approach. [end]

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