Aberjona River Widening Expected to Begin Next Summer

Winchester could have a slightly different look to its downtown next year.

After a heavy rain next summer, don't be surprised if the Waterfield Parking Lot, located next to the commuter train, is filled with water. That's the plan. As the town continues its Aberjona River widening project there could be some changes seen around town a year from now.

According to Town Counsel Wade Welch and Assistant Town Manager Mark Twogood, the town will need to have all the permitting for the design completed by Sep. 1. Welch is expecting it to take nine months for the town to be granted all the permits needed to move forward.

If all goes according to plan, Winchester will have all its permits by May. The town is only allowed to complete construction of the river widening between July and October, since that is the low-flow period.

 "We're going to have to divert the water from the current channel, from where they widen it to the parking lot to the Winchester train station," Welch said. "We'll pipe it along, back over the Winchester fields and back into the river. You don't want to do that except at low-flow times."

If the permits are delayed and the project cannot begin in July, then the river widening may have to be postponed into the following year.

This current project, Project II, involves a widening and deepening of the river of about 2,800-feet between Waterfield Road and Bacon Street.

At the end of river widening, the bottom width of the Aberjona will grow from 15-feet to 35-feet; most of that expansion will take place in the 1,300 feet downstream from the Waterfield Bridge. A low-flow channel will be constructed to accommodate Alewife during the spawning season. Also, about 475-feet of Mystic Valley Parkway will be effected. Approximately eight-feet of the current shoulder will be converted to a five-foot wide walk and vegetated strip.

By next fall, it not only will it be an improved and safer river, but the Town Center could also be positively impacted from this river-widening project.

"The channel widening project and some of these other pieces are effectively hundred year projects," said Planning Board member Lance Grenzeback. "Chances are we will not find both the need and the funding to do them again for another 70 – 100 years. So, they're going to set a lot of what happens in the Town Center."

With an improve walkway, bike path and a new parking system on the way, along with the river-widening project, the Winchester downtown could be look quite different a year from now.