Conservation Commission approves Beaver Brook Trail restoration work

Waltham’s Conservation Commission last week voted to approve restoration work to a footbridge at the Beaver Brook Reservation.

Representatives from engineering firm Arcadis presented a plan to the commission to rebuild the brook’s south bank with a wall of natural stone. The wall would address erosion that is currently undercutting the existing trail. The Arcadis presentation asserted that this restoration is “necessary to maintain safe public access to recreational resources.”

Arcadis proposed resurfacing a small segment of pavement leading up to the bridge along with rebuilding the stone retaining wall.

Thomas Valton, a representative from the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation, said the path would remain at least partially open until the repaving – an assurance made in response to concerns about the bridge being shut down in late spring, when families would be using it to access the spray deck at Beaver Brook Reservation. 

Valton estimated the repaving itself would take less than a day to complete and said the DCR would notify the public in advance of closing the path.

He added that construction on the project would happen at the earliest in the spring but would likely have to wait until the new fiscal year starts in the fall.

The city’s Conservation Commission closed the public hearing, voting to draft an order of conditions for the project to review with Arcadis and the DCR at its next meeting on Jan. 22.

Additionally, the commission:

• Delayed a public hearing about the conservation impact of a large residential development at 245-265 Winter St. until Feb. 5. The commission will require the project’s developer to put out another public notice before the next session of the hearing.
• Heard an update from Conservation Agent Julia Abbot following a site visit for previously approved work at Beaver Brook Reservation. Abbot said construction can move forward.
• Voted to sign a letter from the Charles River Watershed Association to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority calling for more stringent protections on sewer overflows from Cambridge and Boston that feed into the Charles River. “This is something that needs to be addressed, seeing that we’ve spent so much money as a state on the Charles River,” Commissioner Gerard Dufromont said when speaking in favor of signing the letter.
• Welcomed new members Frank Fitzgerald and Anja Shafer to the commission.