Soggy Alley Park gets drainage repairs

0

Contractors worked this week to repair a longstanding drainage problem in Alley Park (formerly known as Waban Park).

Compacted material was removed, and an underwater drainage pipe from Alley Park to Farm Pond was replaced.

“It was collapsed in three or four places,” highway superintendent Richard Combra Jr. said. “We dug down about three feet, we took out a lot of dense hard packed loam in there that wasn’t allowing the park to drain properly.”

Work crews filled in the excavation with sand and covered it with an engineered mixture of half sand, and half loam. The whole area will be seeded, and the work should be complete within a week. Mr. Combra said the repairs should take care of the standing water that gathered in the park’s low spots after wet weather.

The Oak Bluffs Parks Department won a matching grant to fund the project from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The grant also includes money to repair the clay brick bathroom near the Steamship Authority terminal and the Civil War Memorial across the street from the terminal.