Town Administrator Mallory Aronstein is pleased to announce that the Town of Dighton was awarded a $150,000 Culvert Replacement Municipal Assistance Grant to fund construction on the Briggs Street culvert.
The Culvert Replacement Municipal Grant is provided to communities through the Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration (DER) and the Baker-Polito Administration. The primary goal of the Culvert Replacement Municipal Grant is to encourage Massachusetts communities to replace degraded, undersized culverts with better designed structures intended to meet the Massachusetts Crossing Standards. Meeting the Standards increases climate readiness by restoring natural river processes and by improving public safety through reduction of roadway and flood hazards.
The funds from this grant will be used to replace an undersized and deteriorated culvert on Sunken Brook. The grant will be helpful in improving the infrastructure on Briggs Street which will be used for a detour to Center Street.
The replacement of this culvert is a necessary step for the Town of Dighton to keep streets open during inclement weather. The upgrade will also reduce flood risk, improve public safety and restore access for fish and wildlife.
“We are extremely thankful to the DER and the Baker-Polito Administration for providing us with this grant,” Town Administrator Aronstein said. “We are actively looking at our infrastructure throughout the town to assess our ability to keep streets open in inclement weather. This is part of our stormwater management best practices and chipping away at our to do list of improving our local infrastructure.”
The Town of Dighton was awarded approximately a $92,000 grant from DER in 2018 (FY19) to perform engineering, design and permitting for the Briggs Street culvert. The design yielded a 17-inch wide culvert proposal that will result in restoring the natural habitat of this unique area, which mixes salt water of the Taunton River with coldwater in the Segreganset River.
The Town of Dighton is working collaboratively with The Nature Conservancy on this project and is awaiting word from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on a grant application. The town expects to hear from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in October.
The funds awarded by DER will serve as the town’s match if the town is awarded the federal grant.
“The Town of Dighton has a strong history of garnering state funds for worthy projects due to the natural resources in town and our coordinated effort to improve roads, manage runoff and mitigate risk,” Town Administrator Aronstein said. “If all of these grant applications come together, it will be a culmination of inter-governmental partnerships that is not usually seen on non-economic development projects.”
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