Road repairs go deep after Leominster flooding

LEOMINSTER - The mayor is hoping that within a week most of the major repairs in the city due to Monday’s massive flooding will be wrapped up.

Crews are working to fix sunken or buckled sections of roadways throughout the city.

“Some of these are huge,” Mayor Dean J. Mazzarella said Wednesday morning. “You got to move the gas lines. All the infrastructure underneath has to be moved temporarily, then permanently again.”

More: 'Devastating': Healey requests federal aid for Leominster, visits flood zones

Later in the day, at an afternoon news conference, the mayor said schools would reopen Thursday on a two-hour delay. They had been closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We’re OK with opening the schools on a delay tomorrow,” Mazzarella said. “The safest place right now is for kids to be in schools…That’s where we can feed them.”

School Superintendent Paula Deacon said Northwest School and the Leominster High School were damaged by the flood.

“Leominster High School, the damage has been addressed. It will not impede anyone from coming to school,” Deacon said. “Northwest took in quite a bit of water and mud. We have at least seven classrooms that a flex schedule is planned. Our staff is working with the principal right now to figure out where we can place them...But all of them will be in person.”

In terms of infrastructure, Mazzarella said, damage estimates for Leominster is $20 million to $30 million as of now and that number can go up.

“Our infrastructure can handled storms. We handle storms all the time. One to 3 inches over two or three days is nothing. Nine to 11 inches in four hours is another story,” Mazzarella said. “They’re saying this is a 500-year storm. We prefer to win the lottery.”

Mazzarella said crews are working on Barrett Park Pond Dam to secure it. He said the City of Leominster has done the necessary paperwork for a FEMA grant to get the engineering done for Barrett Park.

“Barrett Park, the first grant was to get engineering done for that area,” Mazzarella said. “Now, the engineering and the plans are all done. Now we have to file for another grant based on the documents that we have and, hopefully, we will get that grant so we can completely do over the dam. What we’re doing now is a temporary fix. It’s going to stabilize it and it’s good through the storm but it’s not a permanent fix.”

He said the dam didn’t burst — but it was close.

Mazzarella said it’s a miracle that nobody got hurt during the storm, which dumped 9.5 inches on the city.

“Remember, we had a lot of different situations. We had the railroad. We had the rivers, people in their houses,” Mazzarella rattled off. “There were 50 different things all at once. It wasn’t just erosion.”

“A whole lot of work has been done in a couple of days,” Mazzarella said. “The good thing, everyone is safe. We’re happy for that.”

More A bad situation made worse? More rain could be headed to Leominster

As reports keep coming in from homeowners with flooded basements, Mazzarella has crews working to pump out unwelcomed water throughout the city.

“By noontime yesterday (Tuesday), there were 50 homes still on the list that needed be pumped, but they already had done 50,” Mazzarella said.

Meantime, commuter rail trains are not traveling past the Shirley station, with bus access to western stations in North Leominster, Fitchburg and Wachusett. Some rail beds were washed out.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said damage assessment is continuing, headed by rail operator Keolis Commuter Services.

The MBTA said: "This service diversion will be in place until further notice while Keolis and the MBTA work with the [City] of Leominster to assess the damage and coordinate for necessary repairs to the drainage infrastructure before the required track repairs can begin. Keolis and MBTA crews are actively clearing debris and working with Town officials. Impending inclement weather over the next few days is expected to impact the timeline for these repairs."

Robert Proulx, the MBTA’s deputy director for railroad operations, gave a train update at the Wednesday afternoon press conference.

“Right now, we’re doing our best we can because of the rain,” Proulx said. “We have our contractor on scene waiting for the water to stop. We’re going through underneath the tracks. As soon as that done we will be able to mobilize all our units over there. Hopeful, by next Monday, we will have trains, at least, running to North Leominster, dropping people off there. But, we’re still going to have to bus between North Leominster and Fitchburg. And, then, hopefully, by the end of next week, sometime, we’ll have trains running full service to Wachusett.”

Leominster’s Public Works Director Raymond Racine gave an update on badly hit Pleasant Street.

“We have a private contractor onsite on Pleasant Street and he’s in the process of trying to replace the drain that caved in,” Racine said. “It’s going to take a few weeks to repair that because there’s a 15-foot gaping hole there…We have the drain to fix. We have the sewer to fix. So we’ll stay at it until we fix it.”

The shelter at the Frances Drake Elementary School was still open as of 1 p.m. Wednesday. The few people who are located there will be moved to hotels later in the day, Mazzarella said.

Everyone has returned to Broadmeadow Acres, he said.

“We’re 26 square miles. Not one square mile wasn’t impacted…This has impacted 26 square miles,” Mazzarella said. “It’s everything. It’s bridges and trains and buses and houses and reservoirs. It has impacted everything.”

A generator is running the elevators and common areas at the seven-stories elderly high-rise at 100 Main St. but the power has not been fully restored, Mazzarella said.

“The larger projects out there are not going to take days but weeks,” Mazzarella said. “Some streets we’ve been able to open up one lane…How fast can we get the other lane on Mechanic Street and Hamilton Street? It could be weeks before we get those areas open. They’re just not safe enough to open up both ways.”

Mazzarella said they are working on seeing what kind of assistance they can get to businesses and homeowners.

“The thing with this storm it’s a whole bunch of pieces. It’s not just flooded basements and flooding,” Mazzarella said. “Obviously, it’s a multitude of things. We’re trying our hardest to get most roads open, at least to one lane.”

The city will be doing extra trash picks. Volunteer groups are filling sandbags and the city is using sump pumps to empty flooded basements, he said.

A Leominster Relief Fund is set up at City Hall.

As for the threat of the next oncoming storm, Mazzarella said, “The ground is saturated. It can’t take anymore...But, we’re on high alert and we certainly have the resources here now. And we have the ability to call in mutual aid like we did the other night…We’re ready for whatever the weather brings.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Road repairs go deep after Leominster flooding