Brookfield officials frustrated over CSX bridge project

Many questions still left unanswered

By Ruth M. Lyon

Turley Publications Reporter

BROOKFIELD – Brookfield officials continue to voice frustration regarding lack of information on the CSX railroad bridge project.

Last week, Select Board Chairman Rudy Heller said that at a meeting attended by Tantasqua Regional High School Assistant Superintendent Deborah Boyd, himself and a representative of Atlantic Express Company, the subject of potential problems relating to the bridge project had been raised.

Questions included the potential additional cost of busing, due to longer travel time for Brookfield students, leading to concern about the length of time students might potentially be riding at either end of the day. Another question related to whether this might require a longer school day for teachers and disruption of schedules.

Heller suggested, and the board agreed, to ask the bus company, school committee and staff to list their concerns in writing, including any potential unbudgeted costs, and to seek CSX response.

In a recent interview, Toni Wahlers, who oversees school bus routes for Brimfield, Brookfield, Holland and Wales for Atlantic Express, explained the project’s effect upon her company’s Brookfield routes. “It will certainly be an inconvenience. “It will add about 20 minutes to the six routes involved. We’ve mapped out ways to get around it, which will require Tantasqua students to leave at 6 a.m. instead of the present 6:20 a.m., but that still doesn’t allow enough turn-around time to get the elementary school students to school on time. Students will be arriving at school at about 8:35 a.m., and the same will apply in the afternoon, when the school bus will arrive to pick up students at 3:15 p.m.”

Wahlers said that the additional driver time and bus mileage will entail additional expense.

In a phone interview, Heller voiced his private exasperation with the lack of information forthcoming from CSX and other entities involved with the project, which calls for rehabilitation of the bridge over the tracks at Route 148 and raising the bridge to provide a 21-foot clearance over the CSX rail line. The project, according to CSX, will include modification and repair of the bridge abutment back walls and wing walls and will entail the acquisition of permanent and temporary easements for construction.

Queries by the Brookfield Board of Selectmen and by a Turley Publications reporter have failed to receive specific answers to questions regarding the planning and timing of the project, and have offered contradictory answers in regard to accessibility to both sides of the bridge for emergency vehicles and personnel. Acting Police Chief Douglas Blood has expressed his dissatisfaction with plans as presented so far, as have the selectmen and water and highway department officials. A public information meeting has been promised by project officials, but has not been announced to town officials.

Heller says his board has received communication from CSX stating that the project will be underway in November. “Frankly, I have no idea whether that will happen. In all of the time this project has been known to us, we have never been informed as to who’s in charge. Personally, I’d like to know just who has the authority to say, ‘Okay, dig the hole’.

“As I understand it, this project will not benefit the citizens of Brookfield one iota, and will, as we now understand it, inflict pain and suffering and expose many of our residents to possible danger while this goes on. CSX is a profit-making company. I intend to see that Brookfield does not bear one cent of expense due to this project. The railroads may have some history of being untouchable, or such is the myth. But they don’t rule the roost in Brookfield. If we do not get answers to our questions and a resolution to our very real safety and other concerns, I’d be perfectly willing to sit on the tracks to prevent this project going forward, and I believe there are others who would join me.”

A phone call to Richard Masucci, named by railroad officials as project manager, was not returned as of press time.