Signal improvements along the railway situated off County Road in Rochester, as proposed by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Rail & Transit Division, will have no impact on surrounding wetlands, despite the location of the rail that runs through a wetlands resource area.
The Rochester Conservation Commission on December 2 gave a negative determination for the installment of 680 linear feet of cable within the 100-foot buffer zone.
Representative for the MassDOT Rail & Transit Division Lars Carlson of Jacobs Engineering Inc. said the signal upgrades would improve safety and operational flux of the Middleboro to Cape Cod weekend passenger rail service that passes through Rochester.
“The intent is to create a signal system to allow trains to be dispatched from a remote station,” said Carlson. Existing non-functioning equipment would be replaced and strategic points in the rail would be cut into “cut sections.” These points in the cut sections would send a signal via the cable that another train is currently occupying that “block” between cut sections.
A 6-foot by 6-foot prefabricated house, which Carlson referred to as a “bungalow,” will be installed near the cut section to house the controls.
The work, which encroaches the wetlands as close as 15 to 20 feet from the resource area at one point, will occur between the two existing tracks set atop a raised embankment.
Conservation Agent Laurell Farinon said she walked the area with Carlson and recommended the negative determination.
Also during the meeting, Farinon updated the commission on a few regulation changes to the Wetlands Protection Act she learned about during a Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection workshop.
“There is not a whole lot that affects the day-to-day operation of the Conservation Commission,” said Farinon. One of two changes of significance, she explained, is MassDEP’s determination that drainage detention basins installed in new subdivisions after November 1996 are no longer jurisdictional under the Wetlands Protection Act. The other pertains to abutter notification regulations.
The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission is scheduled for December 16 at 7:00 pm at the Rochester Town Hall.
By Jean Perry
