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Officials weigh three designs for Winnicut Road culvert to boost flood resilience and wildlife passage
Summary
NHDOT and McFarland Johnson presented three options for replacing the Thompson Brook culvert on Winnicut Road — a 41-foot bridge, a 24-foot rigid frame, or a 9-foot box culvert — each designed for 100-year storms; the Nature Conservancy is seeking construction funding and the Board requested more information on detours and emergency access.
NHDOT and engineering consultant McFarland Johnson on April 20 presented three alternatives to Greenland's Board of Selectmen for replacing the Thompson Brook culvert on Winnicut Road, aiming to improve flood resiliency and wildlife connectivity.
Christine Perron, project manager for McFarland Johnson, outlined the options: a geomorphically compatible bridge with a 41-foot span, a bank-full rigid frame with a 24-foot span, and a hydraulically compatible 9-foot box culvert. Perron said all designs are sized to meet 100-year storm standards and include provisions to facilitate wildlife passage.
Kirk Mudget of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation said preliminary design work was funded by a National Coastal Resilience Fund grant, but construction funding has not been identified; the Nature Conservancy is seeking additional grants to support the work. The presenters described environmental constraints at the site, including wetlands, floodplain, and presence of brook trout, and said invasive plants will be managed during construction.
Traffic-control tradeoffs drew sustained attention from local officials. McFarland Johnson described two options: maintain single-lane traffic with signal control, which the police and fire chiefs preferred to preserve emergency access but would extend construction to three to four months; or implement a full closure with an official 8-mile detour that would shorten construction to about one month. Board members and residents pressed for more information about alternate travel paths, school bus routes, property easements and debris management.
Selectmen agreed to request additional technical detail on emergency response times under each traffic scenario, estimates of construction duration by option, and the Nature Conservancy's grant timeline before making a formal endorsement. No final decision or vote on a preferred design was taken at the April 20 meeting.
Next steps: the town will seek follow-up materials from NHDOT and McFarland Johnson and will continue coordination with the Nature Conservancy about funding options.
