This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
03/20/2018 03:15 PMThe Connecticut Water Company (CWC) wants to build a new water storage tank on Ridge Road, to help improve the company’s infrastructure and bring more water to residents in the area. The Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) approved the project at a meeting on March 15 and the proposal now goes before the Board of Selectman (BOS) for final approval.
CWC was seeking a special exception permit to build the 1.3 million gallon tank on the town’s bulky waste site located on Ridge Road. According to CWC Construction Project Supervisor Nicholas Meder, the tank will have an approximate diameter of 60 feet and will not exceed 75 feet in height. As designed, the tank will have no company logo and will be shorter than the existing tree line and cell tower, so no lighting is needed on the structure. The tank will have an eight-foot chain-link fence around it for safety reasons.
CWC Design Engineer James Casagrande said the company wants to add a tank in between the Hammonasset River and the existing water storage tank on Clapboard Hill Road in Guilford.
“We considered a number of sites and we zeroed in on this site and approached the Town of Madison primarily because of the ground elevation, but [also] to be consistent with the site use,” he said. “The other sites we looked at were very residential or conservation land.”
Meder said the existing plumbing infrastructure that runs up Copse Road and down Green Hill Road to serve Daniel Hand High School and Polson Middle School will be tapped into and extended up Green Hill and Ridge Road to pick up the tank. Having access to this tank will be to the public’s benefit according to Meder.
“One of the added benefits here is although there is adequate fire protection there, this greatly enhances the fire department’s ability to fight fires at the school,” he said. “They are more than doubling what they currently have now for fire flow rates and it adds fire protection along that section of Green Hill Road and Ridge Road, and we are going to be adding a hydrant just outside of the fence. We have had discussions with the fire marshal and the [fire] chief and they are extremely excited to have a hydrant at the dump in the event there was a leaf or brush fire there. It’s greatly expanding their capabilities.”
Additionally, those residents who live along that section of Green Hill Road and Ridge Road will have the opportunity to tap into the water main if it’s approved and set for construction.
“There is the potential for future domestic service connections to folks that will have frontage along that new water main,” he said. “If they would like to make connections, if we receive approval tonight, we will be soliciting interest from them, find out who would like to have service, [and] get those services installed across the road before we come back and do final restoration.”
However, in extending the water main, Green Hill Road—which was just repaved only a few years ago—and Ridge Road will have to be disturbed and likely experience a complete mill and overlay from curb to curb once the main is put in. Director of Planning and Economic Development Dave Anderson said while unfortunate, the town will not be financially responsible for repaving the roads after the main is installed.
“Connecticut Water will pay the complete costs for the work associated with milling and overlay of Green Hill Road, since that road was just recently reconstructed,” he said. “The town’s road plan calls for reclamation of Ridge Road in the near future anyway, so the costs of reconstructing Ridge Road will be shared between the town and the water company. Offsetting the cost of the Ridge Road work is another financial gain for the town.”
Additionally, Anderson said while there is not a complete timeline for construction yet, any roadwork would be done during the summer when students are out of school.
According to CWC, this tank will eventually take over for the Clapboard Hill Road tank in Guilford. That tank was built in 1906 and is reaching the end of its useful life. Additionally this new Ridge Road tank is designed to support water supply needs for significant sections of the Madison population if residents or the town so chose.
Members of PZC had few questions, but one resident did ask what would happen if for any reason the tank should fail.
“In the case of extreme failure, which is highly unlikely with this type of construction, the flow would be immediately west into the Town of Madison’s property and then would directly flow to the south onto Connecticut state land, the wetlands,” said Casagrande. “I ran it through the calculations and roughly that 1.3 million gallons, if it were to be released, would be entirely contained in the wetlands on the state property. That was another consideration in the location, because there would be no anticipated damage to property or risk of injury.”
PZC approved the proposal, which now moves on to the BOS. As the tank would be built on town property, the BOS has to vote to call a town meeting to approve an easement.