Tisbury eyes modified Five Corners flood plan

Officials want to explore state funding for what they say is an Island-wide concern.

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Five Corners, flooded after one of three strong storms last winter. —Eunki Seonwoo

Tisbury is looking at yet another partial solution to mitigate flooding at Five Corners, after a complex state permitting process led the town to indefinitely suspend a similar plan earlier this year.

Tighe & Bond engineering company presented a new plan — meant to require a less complex permitting process — at a Dec. 10 town select board meeting. The plan is a modification to a design first suggested by University of New Hampshire engineers in March that was delayed indefinitely this fall.

Tighe & Bond’s approach comes with a probable construction cost of $1 million, but funding amounts and sources are yet to be worked out.

Businesses, pedestrians, and motorists who rely on the town’s main intersection have long complained of poor drainage, even during minimal rain events. After a trio of rough storms last winter, many renewed their calls to the town and state. But with a more comprehensive state plan an estimated decade away, town officials have been scrambling to find a partial, quicker solution. It looks like the intersection will go another winter without a fix.

The new plan involves installing a precast concrete structure to combine the three existing drainage lines at Five Corners, along with a new, higher-capacity reinforced concrete pipe or box culvert, and a new concrete outfall or overflow structure in the same footprint as the current structure.

This solution would primarily be located underground, and would not erode the beach where water is emptied, Tighe & Bond’s Fran Hoey told the select board.

Tighe & Bond employees did note that their plan is a partial fix, that it is in its early stages, and that it will need local, state, and federal approvals. Hoey did not give a timeline for when work could begin.

“I would … stress that we really haven’t started design yet on this,” said Hoey, who would be the project’s principal were work at Five Corners to begin.

“This will be a solution that addresses some of the severity and frequency of flooding, but there are probably additional solutions, a more holistic solution that [you] might want to get put into play over time,” he told the board.

Tighe & Bond senior consultant Briony Angus said that the initial plan from the university would, however, have required much greater permitting.

“This relatively small stormwater outfall project would have required a full environmental impact report, a significant amount of community engagement, and analysis of public health impacts, et cetera,” Angus said.

Town officials on Tuesday were primarily concerned with funding.

Town administrator Jay Grande asked the select board to consider approving Tighe & Bond to continue working with the town, commission, and state. He also asked them to consider asking town DPW Director Kirk Metell to explore alternative funding sources.

Grande also expressed interest in asking the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to accept the project in its transportation improvement program, and in seeking state-level funding as part of an Island-wide transportation improvement plan.

Tighe & Bond’s plan also comes as town officials have expressed frustration with a more comprehensive solution at Five Corners from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Metell told The Times in October that the state approach could take at least another decade.

Grande hoped on Tuesday that Tighe & Bond’s work could facilitate future coordination with the state.

“I have heard nothing definitive from MassDOT,” Grande said of a comprehensive state solution. “I think the idea is that at some point, there really is not any MassDOT project that is moving forward. I would hope that this project with Tighe & Bond could facilitate that more holistic review, and get that moving along as well.”

For regional or state financial support, Grande noted that the town might consider filing a warrant article for the upcoming annual town meeting in April, in order to fund further design on the project that would help attract those outside funding sources.

“I would just indicate that we need to get this design progressed to a higher level of engineering, so that in fact there is something tangible that MassDOT can respond to, as well as our joint planning transportation committee at the commission,” he said.

Funding for this additional design could also come from Chapter 90 funds managed by Metell’s department, he added.

State funding could be on the table for Five Corners, Grande also said, because the intersection is important to all six Vineyard towns. “The other aspect of this is we believe this is a project of Island importance, and we believe the other Island communities support us in this effort, and that they would support us in including it in a transportation improvement plan for the Island, for consideration in the future for funding,” he said. “And so that the full burden wouldn’t have to be on the town of Tisbury in terms of having this project implemented.”