(June 22, 2017) The Town of Berlin is about halfway through four major stormwater projects being paid for by almost $2 million in grants.
The off-land wetlands installation behind the multipurpose building on Flower Street finished last year, and a culvert replacement on Flower Street is nearly finished, according to Town Administrator Laura Allen.
“For all intents and purposes Flower Street is done,” Allen said. “We just have a few, small punch-list items that we’re dealing with, with the contractor.”
Next, the town will expand the existing culvert and install an off-land wetland on William Street. A pre-bid meeting was held early last week, and the town signed an agreement on June 12 with Maryland State Highway related to the work.
When bids for William Street come in, Allen said the town would have a better grasp on how much grant money is remaining for stormwater projects on Graham, Grice and Nelson streets.
She said some preliminary work was done there, based on rough estimates, by Public Works/Water Resources Director Jane Kreiter and Darl Kolar from EA Engineering, Science and Technology Inc.
As with an unrelated stormwater project on West Street, Allen said you never know what you’re going to get when you open up a roadway.
“We’ve been going out and pretesting to see where things are, so we should be in better shape,” she said. “Some of this is a learning process for us, so it’s an evolution and we’re getting better at it every day.”
Allen said the $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant Program money was closed out in December. The stormwater work that continues is largely using funds from the Department of Natural Resources and Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), a state program created by FEMA.
The latter grant was awarded during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Allen said.
“While we see it as a stormwater project, the MEMA folks see it as flooding mitigation,” Allen said.
The off-land wetlands installation behind the multipurpose building on Flower Street finished last year, and a culvert replacement on Flower Street is nearly finished, according to Town Administrator Laura Allen.
“For all intents and purposes Flower Street is done,” Allen said. “We just have a few, small punch-list items that we’re dealing with, with the contractor.”
Next, the town will expand the existing culvert and install an off-land wetland on William Street. A pre-bid meeting was held early last week, and the town signed an agreement on June 12 with Maryland State Highway related to the work.
When bids for William Street come in, Allen said the town would have a better grasp on how much grant money is remaining for stormwater projects on Graham, Grice and Nelson streets.
She said some preliminary work was done there, based on rough estimates, by Public Works/Water Resources Director Jane Kreiter and Darl Kolar from EA Engineering, Science and Technology Inc.
As with an unrelated stormwater project on West Street, Allen said you never know what you’re going to get when you open up a roadway.
“We’ve been going out and pretesting to see where things are, so we should be in better shape,” she said. “Some of this is a learning process for us, so it’s an evolution and we’re getting better at it every day.”
Allen said the $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant Program money was closed out in December. The stormwater work that continues is largely using funds from the Department of Natural Resources and Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), a state program created by FEMA.
The latter grant was awarded during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Allen said.
“While we see it as a stormwater project, the MEMA folks see it as flooding mitigation,” Allen said.