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Task force reviews Milford Pond dredging case study and agrees to seek contractor cost scenarios for Warner's Pond
Summary
A presenter described a Milford Pond hydraulic-dredge restoration that removed roughly 60,000 cubic yards using on-site settling basins and coir-core logs; Concord task force members agreed to request contractor cost estimates and to reuse existing dredge plans in an RFI/RFP while deferring an expensive bathymetric survey.
Adam presented a Milford Pond hydraulic-dredging case study under Section 206 of the Water Resources Development Act, describing a partial hydraulic dredge that removed about 60,000 cubic yards and used a 30-acre on-site placement basin protected by coir-core logs. "We were able to go in, pump hydraulically dredge the material down to the 12, 13 feet deep, pump it directly in into the site," Adam said, describing how the project allowed material to dewater and be later planted with native trees.
He told the task force that organic-rich sediments can be highly water-saturated and that the slurry often shrinks substantially when dewatered—bench tests showed rapid shrinkage to roughly 30%–40% of in-situ volume within days if water can drain away. That behavior matters for how much material a receiving field will ultimately contain once dewatered.
Delia and other members discussed local constraints. Warner's Pond is larger and has a watershed largely outside town control; the task force’s engineering team produced a conceptual capacity estimate that an approximately 9.5–10 acre Northfield could accept about 49,500 cubic yards without excavation, though that number is conservative and does not include space for access, erosion controls or topsoil that must be returned.
On procurement, members agreed it would be more efficient initially to reuse the existing dredge plans in a request for information/quotes (RFI/RFP) and to change the disposal location in the documents rather than commissioning a full professional land-surveyor bathymetric survey before soliciting contractor input. Delia said a PLS-quality bathymetric survey estimate she had seen was "over $15,000," and members decided to first ask contractors for conceptual cost estimates for a few disposal scenarios (examples discussed: the RFP's 5,000-yard shelf provision with the remainder disposed off-site; separate costs for off-site disposal vs. on-site pond shelf creation).
The task force also discussed next steps: posting documents to a shared drive, asking contractors for cost scenarios scaled to different volumes (to capture potential per-yard efficiencies at larger mobilizations), and preparing a technical memorandum to explain field-capacity assumptions. The group approved the prior meeting minutes as amended and planned to continue the procurement discussion at a follow-up meeting.
