The Town of Plymouth is proud to announce that it will receive $1,975,959 in state funding for the Bartlett Road Dam Removal, Culvert Resiliency, and Stormwater Improvements Project.
Plymouth received the $1.976 million award through the Commonwealth’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (“MVP”) Grant, a program made available to Massachusetts cities and towns by the Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs. The purpose of the MVP program is to assist municipalities with the identification and implementation of priority climate resilience and adaptation actions.
One of 79 projects competitively selected by the Healey-Driscoll Administration, Plymouth’s award was the fourth largest of the MVP Action Grants issued in the program’s FY24 round. The grant will fund nearly two-thirds of the Town’s costs to undertake the multiple facets of the Bartlett Road Culvert Resiliency Project, beginning with the removal and replacement of the existing, deteriorating culvert/dam structure with an open box culvert (technically classified as a small bridge), designed to Massachusetts Stream Crossing standards.
Developed through a collaboration between the Town’s Department of Public Works and Department of Environmental Affairs, the project will also: restore the tributary channel located under the forthcoming new bridge; install bio-retention stormwater management infrastructure on adjacent Tidmarsh Sanctuary land; realign the roadway at the culvert and establish a sidewalk (where, currently, none exists); and engage and educate the public on the importance of climate change adaptation, through an exciting partnership with Mass Audubon.
The various elements included in the design of the Bartlett Road Culvert Resiliency Project will further the Town’s efforts to address climate resiliency, by improving floodplain connectivity and storage, riparian wetland habitat, fish passage, and improved water quality—all goals identified in Plymouth’s 2020 Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Report, Climate-Ready Healthy Plymouth. Beyond the project’s ecological and climate resiliency benefits, the Town’s comprehensive initiatives at the Bartlett Road Culvert will ensure safe and reliable passage over the roadway and vastly improve pedestrian access to the immediately adjacent Mass Audubon Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary.
As part of its partnership with the Town on the Bartlett Road Culvert Resiliency Project—a portion of which will take place on Tidmarsh Sanctuary land—Mass Audubon has developed a custom educational program around the project that will focus on the relationship between the Town’s initiatives and the adjacent ecosystem, highlighting human impact upon natural resources, climate resilience in action, local watershed stewardship, and ecological management and restoration. This comprehensive outreach and education program will include pop-up events, hands-on student learning programs, volunteer opportunities, research initiatives, web-based outreach, and interactive digital engagement – all inspired by the Town’s efforts to integrate meaningful climate resilience and environmental protection components at the forefront of its public projects.
“The Select Board is very happy to see this project move forward for the residents of Manomet, the whole of Plymouth, and all those who visit the Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary,” said Richard Quintal Jr., chairman of Plymouth’s Select Board. “The MVP program incentivizes communities like ours to design our projects with the forthcoming effects of climate change in mind. Repair projects can address what we need, now, but resilience projects will prepare us for the future—and this grant will provide us with the opportunity to do just that.”
“This is a great win for Plymouth,” said Plymouth’s Town Manager, Derek Brindisi. “The work invested by our staff into the project’s design and the subsequent MVP grant application will reduce the Town’s costs to complete this initiative by nearly two-thirds. We are extremely grateful to be recognized by the MVP Grant Program, without which the Town may have been again forced to delay this much needed project.”
The Town anticipates that it will commence construction activities at the Bartlett Road Culvert site as early as October, with the project scheduled for completion by June 2024.