Photo: The new roadway over the Beaver Brook culvert at the Waltham/Belmont line.
After two decades of delays in deciding who would pay what part of a several million-dollar infrastructure project, a brand new tunnel carrying Beaver Brook under the main thoroughfare between Belmont and Waltham is now in operation.
The days of vehicles bouncing over steel plates as they crawled over a crumbling underground culvert, which allowed Beaver Brook to cross Trapelo Road at the border of Waltham and Belmont, have finally ended.
“The culvert? It’s finished,” said Glenn Clancy, Belmont’s long-serving Town Engineer, at a recent Select Board meeting. But don’t expect a ribbon cutting when the remaining items on the “punch list” are tidied up in the new year.
“I think everyone involved is just happy that it’s done,” said Clancy, Belmont’s contact on the project.
The more than three-decade delay in the rebuild was due to the culvert’s location: half of the infrastructure lies in Waltham, and the other half in Belmont. During this time, the two municipalities could not agree on which should pay for what.
“That’s always been a contentious thing. We knew we wanted to replace it, but the biggest issue preventing that was jurisdiction: was it Waltham? Or was it Belmont,” said Clancy.
Finally, in 2019, it was agreed that the two communities would split the project 50/50, although, in the end, Waltham performed more work and accrued additional costs, said Clancy. Belmont’s Town Meeting approved spending up to $800,000 from the town’s Sewer Enterprise Fund, accompanied by a $100,000 state earmark.
In 2022, the state legislature responded to requests for funding by appropriating $2 million to replace the culvert. In October 2022, Waltham—which took the lead on the work—requested bids and, in March 2023, granted the contract to E.T. & L. Corp.
The work began in early July 2024. It included razing the existing culvert and building the new tunnel and its wing walls. It also called for creating a new block wall on the downstream/Waltham side, constructing a moment slab and bridge railing, and constructing a flood wall on the upstream/Belmont side. Finally, minor drainage work, new sidewalk construction, paving, guardrails, and other minor work were and will be completed.
