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Date: 2/21/2023
LUDLOW – For the past year, the Ludlow High School track and field has been deemed unusable and in disrepair.
The Ludlow School Department, Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator Marc Strange have been meeting with each other to figure out a plan to reconstruct the facility.
John Wujek and Cameron Morissette from Mott MacDonald engineering met with the Conservation Commission at its Feb. 15 meeting to discuss their submitted notice of intent to reconstruct the track and field area with mitigation and drainage improvements.
They also discussed comments they received from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Mott MacDonald was hired previously for the original project and the Board of Selectmen reached out to engineer the reconstruction of the track and field.
According to Morissette, the original design of the project was in 2019 but the coronavirus pandemic and funding caused a delay. The engineering and design of the project are now wrapping up.
“The project does not impact any wetlands, bank, no land subject to flooding or coastal areas. It is only impacting the riverfront area, the wetlands buffer area and encroaching on the town of Ludlow’s 25 no disturb zone,” Morissette added.
The original notice of intent for the reconstruction of the track and field was submitted to the Conservation Commission in December 2022 the DEP had a few comments that Morissette and Wujek had to find answers for.
The track and field is currently located on top of Higher Brook.
One concern the DEP had was that since Higher Brook is highwater fishery resource, that the project needs to find a way to prevent sediment from going into the brook and river.
Morissette said, “We do not think the project will have any significant impact in terms of sedimentation going in there. We also have the original notice of intent from 1999 and find the original plans to make our project align with that.”
The other big concern the DEP had was that Mott MacDonald submitted the project as a new development and after conversation, Morissette said they decided to submit the project as a redevelopment.
Morissette said, “This means that we must have an improvement over existing conditions which we believe we are doing so by improving the stormwater management on the site. We are including a stormwater detention basin and providing mitigation and restoration. We are moving the track further away from Higher Brook than it is right now.”
The construction for the project will include completely removing the old track and putting down a new bedding system for the new track and field while also adding synthetic turf to the field.
There will also be mitigation taking place to prevent flooding which will consist of removing debris from the riverfront area while also seeding and planting native tree shrubs and ground cover species.
“The process is quite complex to calculate the degraded area, the difference between degraded areas and disturbed areas and how to comply with mitigation requirements,” Morissette added.
Conservation Commission Chair Angela Tierney raised a concern on the construction process and access to the track.
She asked, “I remember when this project was first proposed, the commission had questions on how you were going to transport material across the tiny bridge.”
The only way to access the track and field is a one lane street that “looks like it can barely fit a car,” Tierney added.
Morissette said he has never been to the site but “that is something that can be looked at by contractors during the bid phase and a solution can be proposed based on the capability of the bridge.”
The commission approved the notice of intent and included an order of conditions that the commission gets to review the construction plan before it is finalized.
Tierney added, “You are taking stuff from the site, and we don’t know where it is going. We must also protect that bridge. We need to see the sequence of events for construction.”
Mott MacDonald will now finalize their construction plans before going out for bids for the project.