The Wild & Scenic Westfield River has allocated funding to assist the ten Westfield River Wild & Scenic communities with degraded road-stream crossings in key resource areas by engaging an engineering firm to complete initial survey work, develop a recommended upgrade option and prepare grant applications to obtain additional funding to move the project forward. The intent of the funding is to help towns acquire preliminary data to make grant applications more competitive so it will eventually be replaced with a crossing meeting stream crossing standards.
The Committee, through its multi-year stream crossing assessment work, has been able to measure, photograph and rank road crossings through most of the Westfield River watershed. Using this information, the Committee has identified a number of road-stream crossings with significant connectivity issues (such as perched, collapsed or undersized culverts). These crossings are priorities for the Wild & Scenic Committee as they prevent the free flow of the river, impede fish passage and wildlife access. Many of these culverts may also be priorities for the town because of their deteriorated condition.
Under our Crossing Upgrade Project, the Committee engages a qualified engineering firm, through a competitive bid process, to complete the preliminary data gathering for select road –stream crossings. The Committee develops the solicitation for engineering and survey services, solicits responses, reviews and selects and contracts with a qualified firm contract for services. The Committee will serve as project manager in addition to funder. The goal is to not tax the over-allocated resources and staff of our Wild & Scenic towns. The selected consultant then completes preliminary assessment on the selected culverts, completes a field survey, summarizes findings in a technical report including replacement options to meet standards and build in climate resiliency. The Committee and consultant will substantially complete an appropriate grant application for the town to submit to an appropriate funding source to advance the crossing upgrade. This project has had great success in obtaining additional funding and eventually replacing inadequate crossings.