Officials: Storm Water Diverted to Other Culverts

City officials have completed changes to the storm water drainage system in Downtown Concord in the wake of a sinkhole that caused damage to I-93 north between Exit 13 and 14 and a traffic nightmare for thousands on Aug. 19, 2015.

The General Services Department, after meeting with Engineering, has permanently diverted storm water from the central business district – Main Street, Storrs Street, and some outlying streets – to culverts on the north and south side of the brick culvert that collapsed yesterday and was filled in by Audley Construction and the NH DOT. The storm water will then run into the Merrimack River from those two culverts, according to Chip Chesley, the director of Concord’s General Services Department.

Much of the central district’s storm water, according to City Engineer Ed Roberge, was running through the culvert that collapsed on Wednesday. While officials don’t know the exact date of the construction of the brick “A-shaped” culvert, Chesley estimated that it was late 1800s, early 1900s, or easily more than a century old. NH DOT filling in the collapsed culvert effectively retired it, he noted.

Chesley said that officials also inspected the two culverts to ensure that they were structurally sound and could handle the extra capacity and found no issues. Crews, he noted, worked through much of the day today establishing new drainage connections to other culverts.

“We were very fortunate to have drainage facilities nearby to redirect the city’s storm water,” Chesley stated. “The city’s Engineering records served us very well.”