Conservation Commission approves rail trail equipment staging at four southern locations

SUDBURY — February 6, 2023 — Sudbury Conservation Commission greenlights Bruce Freeman Rail Trail staging pads as rail removal begins Monday. Contractor Mike Rennie of A.A. Will Corp. told the board that 14,000 of the project's 20,000 feet in town are encumbered by wetlands and that his tracked excavators cannot be trailered daily; the commission unanimously approved containment pads at Union Avenue, Hudson Road, the Broad Acres parking footprint on Morse Road and both sides of Haynes Road, eliminated Pantry Road, and tasked Conservation Coordinator Lori Capone with resolving North Road. Pads must capture a 250-gallon equipment release plus a two-inch rain event, with any spill over 10 gallons reported to DEP. Chair David Henkels said staging "should be based on need and not convenience." The board also accepted a Cavicchio Greenhouses restoration plan covering 4,600 square feet of wetlands burned and contaminated in last year's fire, with plantings due by June 1, and opened an after-the-fact filing by John Delli Priscoli for cleared buffer zone at Pride's Crossing, continued to Feb. 27.