Monoosnoc Brook, a tributary of Nashua River and part of the Merrimack River Watershed, meanders through downtown Leominster, Massachusetts. In 2017, a severe storm caused a segment of stone masonry retaining wall to collapse where the brook runs parallel to Manning Avenue. Rip rap and jersey barriers were temporarily placed to stabilize the embankment, but another storm in September 2023 dropped nearly one foot of rain in just a few hours, causing flash flooding, prompting evacuations and emergency rescues. Woodard & Curran partnered with Leominster officials before the second storm to not only identify a permanent repair solution for the embankment, but to also mitigate flood risk to a major sewer interreceptor located behind the wall and adjacent road infrastructure, as well as improvements to the surrounding community park and trail.
The city of Leominster, situated in north-central Massachusetts, has a population of approximately 43,000. The city is classified as an Environmental Justice Community with approximately 20 percent of residents identifying as Black, Latino, or Asian, and a median income about $10,000 less annually than the statewide median income of $68,563. The demographics and income of the community made it critical for the city to fund this work. Woodard & Curran’s fiscal solutions team assisted in the successful procurement of Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) funds totaling nearly $400,000 for the assessment, design, and permitting of the brook stabilization project. In the summer of 2024, an additional $6.7 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to reconstruct the open channel and culverted portion of Monoosnoc Brook.
Monoosnoc Brook runs through the heart of our downtown business community. Since the partial collapse of one of its walls in 2017, the repair and upgrade to the entire brook corridor has been a top priority for us. These funds will not only help to protect critical infrastructure and the environment, but will help continue to make downtown Leominster a destination.
The MVP grant guidelines require recipient communities to engage area stakeholders in the proposed project work. For Leominster, this included a series of flyers, email blasts, and public hearings. Our project design team distilled complex engineering and revitalization concepts into clear, concise descriptions in English and Spanish that were used for public outreach materials. This helped the city communicate to the public that the three design alternatives drawn up were aimed at stabilizing the brook with an environment and resilience focus, as well as creating a catalyst for downtown revitalization efforts. These design options were presented in a series of public meetings, providing residents with an understanding of benefits and impacts to each approach. The project team also helped the city leverage its annual Johnny Appleseed Festival, as well as other community events, to raise awareness in the community about the project an opportunities to provide feedback.
In addition to simplifying complex concepts, the project team sought a way to provide appealing visuals of each design alternative rather than using technical engineering plans. The team turned to Autodesk Infraworks, which generated conceptual visualizations with surrounding elements with minimal production time and investment. The software generated three-dimensional renderings and video, depicting complex two-dimensional engineering drawings in a manner that is more engaging for the public. The renderings were presented using Microsoft Sway so it was easy to compare images of existing conditions with the proposed design alternatives. This approach greatly helped area residents and business owners understand their options and provide feedback based on tangible visualizations.
Project Rendering
Based on feedback from the community, site investigation and geotechnical surveys, Woodard & Curran’s project team worked to develop a final resilient design that improves the hydraulic capacity with climate change in mind. The project, which will start construction this year, includes slip lining the existing stone arch bridge with corrugated metal, replacing the hydraulically obstructive and structurally deficient culvert under the adjacent municipal parking lot, widening the stream channel to increase floodplain storage, introducing a natural stream bank, installing a Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) Retaining Wall in place of the existing stone masonry, and reconstructing Manning Avenue and the underlying sewer interceptor.
Once complete, the community will be able to enjoy a reconfigured public space above the new culvert with a urban pocket park as a destination along the Monoosnoc Brook Walking Trail. The park will feature generous landscaping, accent lighting, public seating, and a space for community gatherings, as well as a pedestrian-friendly connection between businesses on either side of the brook.
