When is a culvert more than a culvert? When it’s climate resilience in action

CUMMINGTON — Bill Adams looks out onto what once was an artificially formed pond on Stage Road in Cummington.

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For years, a small culvert prevented full water flow from the North Branch Swift River, a tributary to the Westfield River and an area that is believed to be home to rare wildlife.

Now, after replacing the culvert, the stream channel is reforming, finding its way to what nature had initially intended.

Culverts are man-made structures that allow water to flow under roadways, trails or railways. The previous culvert in Cummington was a 12-foot diameter, corrugated metal pipe that no longer met the state standards for fish and wildlife passage, and high flows of water.

As chairman of the culvert committee of Cummington and someone who has had ties to the town since 1991, Adams had the Stage Road replacement high on his list because it was failing and couldn’t withstand heavier rainfalls.

With over 25,000 culverts and bridges in Massachusetts, though, it wasn’t until Stage Road finally started to buckle and was closed down by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that it started gaining state attention. The closure lasted more than two years, which positioned it as a priority on the state’s list of replacement projects.

While addressing culvert restoration has been a focus of the Healey administration, culvert replacement has been an initiative of the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration since 2005.

Beth Lambert, director of the DER, said that for fiscal 2026, her department awarded $3.7 million to 25 municipalities; requests exceeded $10 million from 66 municipalities.

“It’s a high priority for communities, but they lack the capacity. And by capacity, I mean the funding, the technical expertise and the staff time. So that’s what our program tries to provide, is that incentive funding, the technical expertise, and the direct, one-on-one working in the trenches together,” said Lambert.

The culvert in Cummington met the two considerations when the DER was deciding on which locations to prioritize. One key factor is infrastructure and whether the undersized culvert is leading to roads flooding, damage, and, in some cases, roadway blowouts. Stage Road is often used as a cut-through for trucks traveling to routes 116 or 112, so the road could no longer safely stay open in its previous condition. After Hurricane Irene, the need to replace outdated culverts for this reason became even more apparent.

The other consideration is whether the undersized culverts are preventing fish and wildlife from traveling upstream to complete their life cycles. Lambert said that when considering Massachusetts’ 25,000 culverts, “the cumulative impact is significant.”

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Regarding the ecology for Cummington, residents noted the river is home to brook trout, blacknose dace, longnose dace, the slimy sculpin, white sucker, creek chub, and the American eel, which often needs to pass through culverts to migrate upstream.

Last summer, MassWildlife tracked 28 brook trout and eight blacknose dace, noting that many of the trout were a year old or younger. Adams said the previous metal culvert had begun to fold in and was getting crushed, no longer allowing for full passage of wildlife under the cracked concrete.

Lambert noted that wildlife cameras installed at completed culvert project sites have captured footage of deer and other animals using the new culverts as cut-throughs, which signals the effect these new projects are having on repairing wildlife fragmentation across Massachusetts.

Holden Sparacino, a stream continuity program manager with the DER, said that the first step to culvert replacement is a field survey to measure the size of the stream bed material, the current bank full width, and the hydraulic needs of the area. The design options range from a box, an arch, or a bridge, like the new installation on Stage Road, but the stream bed material should be similar in size to what is found upstream or downstream. Sparacino said that the project team also needs to consider how to best secure the structure and if there is a need for utilities in the immediate area.

“These projects are attempting to take the infrastructure out of the river and basically give the river a little bit of space to move with large-flow events,” said Sparacino.

Funding is a major hurdle for communities looking to replace their outdated culverts. Adams said after trying for years to secure funding to replace the Stage Road culvert, it wasn’t until the Wild and Scenic Westfield River Committee gave the town $5,000 to do an initial study that things started to finally start to come together.

To complete the Stage Road project, the town of Cummington used grants from the River Committee, the DER, MassWorks, the Municipal Small Bridge Program and MassDOT. According to the DER, the estimated overall cost for the Cummington project is $1.05 million. Once funding is settled and a design plan is in place for a culvert, construction can move quickly; the Cummington project is nearly complete after about three months of construction.

Lambert recognizes that there are more culverts needing to be replaced than current funding can support. She said that the DER will be working with MassDOT to launch a new program called the Community Culvert Grant Program. In its first year, the program will offer about $15 million to $20 million a year to communities for culvert replacements. While this still won’t cover all projects needing to be replaced, Lambert believes this program will have an effect.

“Replacing undersized culverts is really a common-sense approach to both restoring rivers and protecting communities during a time of climate change,” said Lambert. “These strong local partnerships between DER and communities are really critical for getting the projects done, because the communities really need that technical assistance and the incentive funding to help get the projects on the ground.”

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