CONWAY — Residents may see repairs to failing embankments along Shelburne Falls Road as the town seeks funding for the long-awaited project.
According to Town Administrator Véronique Blanchard and Selectboard Chair Christopher Waldo, erosion, worsened by flooding in 2023, has severely damaged three key embankments supporting Shelburne Falls Road. Waldo described the failing embankments as a “huge issue” in town.
“The floods of 2023 really exacerbated the problem,” Blanchard said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Blanchard envisions nature-based solutions stabilizing the failing embankments to mitigate future erosion.
To fund the project, the town plans to use its $75,000 earmark from the state’s fiscal year 2026 supplemental budget that state Sen. Paul Mark secured. Considering the high price tag for the project, Blanchard worked with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments to secure an additional $50,500 through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Local Early-stage and Actionable Planning (LEAP) Program, which assists city and town governments with the early designing and planning for projects related to transportation and infrastructure.
As part of the LEAP Program, MassDOT recommended the town work with Bowman Consulting Group Ltd. on the design engineering, leading the Selectboard to sign a contract with the company on Monday night.
Blanchard stressed that the LEAP Program has made the project possible for a small community like Conway.
“I’m absolutely thrilled with MassDOT and how much they’ve been helping FRCOG,” she said after the Selectboard meeting.
Down the line, Blanchard hopes to enroll the project in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), a multi-year program that helps city and town governments earn federal funding for transportation improvement projects.
With designing, planning and funding still to come, the timeline for when work on stabilizing the embankments will begin is uncertain.
“It’s a long process,” Blanchard said. “This is the first step to get us moving on that.”
