Wellesley’s Fuller Brook Park work progresses amid significant tree damage from macroburst | The Swellesley Report

The following is from the DPW, Engineering division. All photo credits to DPW:

July has proven to be a very busy month in Fuller Brook Park with hot, dry weather. This is good for work in the brook, for which low water flow is helpful, but stressful for all the trees and grass planted over the past year, which are struggling to become established. Major items of new work are show below.

July and August are good months for work in the street because of lower traffic volumes and limited school transportation, mostly for camps. The DPW has completed the drainage work in Wellesley Ave., which upgrades the size of the drain to the brook to accommodate increased development over recent years. Photos show excavating under a waterline. Installing the larger drain pipe, and the enlarged outfall to Fuller Brook.

Fuller Brook Park project — Excavating in Wellesley Ave. for upgraded drain pipe.

Wellesley Fuller Brook Park project — One of the less visible elements of the Fuller Brook project has been repairs to five masonry structures; either bridges that carry roads over the brook, or culverts that channel brook water under the roads. Work has been done at Forest Street, State Street, Wellesley Ave., Brook Street, and Cameron Street. Some of this work has involved repointing the stone masonry of the structures and other has been structural repairs inside the structures themselves. The photo below shows before and after images of the two sides of the culvert at Brook Street. This culvert had deteriorating granite block wingwalls, side walls that hold up the soil embankments, and headwalls, that span across the structure. The work at brook Street also included repairs inside the two pipes that carry the brook. Pictured above, downsteam side before work.

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley — Of course, what fun would all of this be without a late afternoon macroburst on Monday July 18, just to keep things interesting? The wild wind storm tore through parts of Wellesley, including that section of Fuller Brook Park between Grove Street and Dover Road. In Fuller Park, several large old maples, oaks, and pines suffered significant damage. Luckily no one was hurt and the property damage in the park, other than to the trees, was minimal. The DPW Park Department did an amazing job of first removing hazards and opening up the park path, then removing trees that were impacting the construction contractor’s access to his work, and then removing downed trees from the brook itself. Work continues in picking up and disposing of the tree waste generated by the storm.

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