More road excavation is in Lincoln’s future, even for Bedford Road residents who already suffered through the water line replacement last year. There will be an information session to explain the work and answer questions on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at 6:30pm in Town Hall and via Zoom.
Phase 2 of the water main project set to begin in May will extend further down Lincoln Road from Ballfield Road to either Codman Road or Route 117 (“we’ll see how our bids come in,” Director of Public Works Steve Olson in a Feb. 9 presentation to the Select Board).
This phase is budgeted at $5.83 million on top of the $3.0 million for Phase 1. The $8.83 million total is being funded by an $8.4 million bond plus an MBTA Community Catalyst grant of $430,000 made possible by the town’s passage of the Housing Choice Act in 2024.
Bedford Road
Meanwhile, Bedford Road from the top of the hill to Five Corners will be closed to traffic from March to May as workers replace stormwater drainage pipes that were found to be in poor condition when the water main work was happening. The main line, lateral lines, and catch basins are all in “pretty rough shape… it turned into a pretty good-sized project,” Olson said, though subsequent camera inspections have shown that the lines from Five Corners down to Codman Road are mostly OK.
The drainage project will cost about $630,000, which will come from state-funded Chapter 90 road work grants. The town receives $250,000–$300,000 in Chapter 90 funds each year and will budget $400,000 from the current balance of about $1 million, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.
The town has set up a dedicated web page at LincolnBigDig.com to keep residents informed about both the drainage and water main work, including expected detours. One lane will remain open “except when conditions dictate a closing,” though the segment running under the railroad tracks at the mall will almost certainly require total closure for some period of time, Olson said. Reverse 911 calls will be made for “unforeseen, last-minute changes only.”
In addition to the water main, Phase 2 will also involve replacing lateral lines, fire hydrants, and main gates or shutoff valves found in numerous locations under Lincoln Road. Workers normally shut the valves on either side of a water main break to limit the number of homes whose water is shut off while repairs are ongoing, but many of the gates on Lincoln Road aren’t working. In 2022, workers tried to isolate the area around a break near Todd Pond Road but had to go all the way from Codman Road to Weston Road to find working gates that could be shut.
In March 2024, the town approved bonding $2.2 million for Phase 1 when it was thought that the project could be done over the course of four consecutive summers, though it was later decided that this would be too disruptive and more costly in the long run.
Looking down the road, so to speak, the town is working with a consultant on a townwide assessment of pavement, since it’s been at least 16 years since town roads were last repaved, Higgins said.
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