Select Board shelves Concord Road reconstruction

A proposed $3.9 million reconstruction of Concord Road will have to wait at least one more year after the Select Board declined to put the capital project on May’s Annual Town Meeting warrant.

The board, which did not take a vote at its Feb. 10 meeting, agreed by a 2-1 consensus to pause the project because of its price tag. The project proposed a full reconstruction of Concord Road from the intersection with Sudbury Road to the Weston-Lincoln town line. It would standardize the road’s width, incorporate new stormwater management improvements and install a 4,450-linear-foot water main. 

While the water main aspect of the project was optional, and not pursuing it would have cut the cost down to $2.3 million, Select Board members John McDonald and Lise Revers said either avenue was too expensive to undertake, as there are major projects coming down the pipeline.

“I think the project is too expensive, so I don’t support the project. Whether it’s $2.3 million for the road, which I think is too expensive, or certainly the water part,” said Select Board member John McDonald. “Especially given what kind of projects that are coming before the town going the next five to 10 years.”

There are several big-ticket projects under consideration around town.

Weston voters are likely to be asked to appropriate $5 million to design a new fire station at the Annual Town Meeting or a future Special Town Meeting this year, and the total cost of that project is estimated to be around $35 million. Additionally, the School Committee has started its early work in the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s building project pipeline for the Middle School and High School campus reconstruction, which has cost estimates ranging from $172 million to $441 million.

While Concord Road is an expensive project, Tom Palmer said he disagreed with McDonald and Revers, as roads are “one of the core functions of what we do as a town,” and shelving the project will only incur higher costs in the future. He added that Concord Road residents should “make your voice heard, one way or the other, on this.”

“It bothers me to kick the can down the road on something that’s a core function of the town, as opposed to just fixing it,” Palmer said. “I know it costs a lot of money, but it isn’t going to get any cheaper, and just kicking the can down the road has got costs associated with doing it every year.”

Department of Public Works Director of Operations Richard Sullivan said work will be done on the road regardless of whether the reconstruction is done because it deteriorates during the winter. 

“We’re over $20,000 a year cleaning that road up between asphalt materials and police details and all the crew and the labor that actually goes into doing that work,” he said. “Once we do that, it’s still a very rough surface; it’s a viable surface, it’s just not great.”

In response to a question about repaving the road, which Sullivan noted wouldn’t fix the drainage issues, he estimated it would cost a “couple hundred thousand dollars to clean it up and pave it.”

Revers noted that folks may get frustrated by roads that are not in “as pristine condition as you like,” but the town needs to reflect on what its priorities are when selecting which projects to fund.

“Roads are easily rehabilitated, water tanks are not, fire stations are not; those have to be replaced – those are large-ticket-cost items that require a lot of engineering and design work,” Revers said. “I just think there’s been an overemphasis on roads versus more important infrastructure in town over the last 10 years … This project is just not important enough to commit this money now to it.”