Waltham High School Project To Break Ground This Month

WALTHAM, MA — This month, as students begin a very different school year, crews will break ground on the site of the new high school.

The city sent the 590-page final environmental impact report (FEIR) to the Massachusets Environmental Protection Agency in mid August. The report includes more than 110 pages of comments from the public, both for and against the project outlining potential environmental concerns.

Water runoff and noise pollution was among the concerns that neighbors had.

Several asked about the blasting. In response, the city said the actual noise from blasting during drilling was similar to typical construction site noise, with occasional louder, but very short duration peaks at the immediate moment of blast shot ignition.

"Technical provisions for controlled blasting will require the contractor to comply with the rules and regulations of the commonwealth," the city responded. "On site rock crushing will be mitigated with earth berms or other sound barriers."

Others said that was still too loud for their liking.

"What the city wants to do, with no real consideration of those that live near the property, is to turn a beautifully quiet neighborhood into an unbearably loud quarry and construction site for 4+ years, then when they are done with the building phase and move to the occupancy phase, have it continue to be a noisy environment," wrote Dave Westner of Glenn Circle. His home sits about 45 feet from where the parking garage wall is slated to be.

The city said when it came to water runoff there was a plan:

"As has been reported at the Waltham Conservation Commission meetings by the lower lying neighbors, they have experienced overland flow for years. Although, no formal complaints were raised prior to this project, this Project will comply with applicable MassDEP Stormwater Management Standards for quality and treatment and includes not exceeding pre-development discharge rates for the design storms. During the construction period, a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) will be implemented and maintained throughout construction to monitor and modify temporary control measures as required. The stormwater is clarified in section 3.2 of the FEIR."

The comment period is open on this until Sept. 25.

Waltham High School Building Project Timeline:

For years, the superintendent's office has been beating the drum about a need for an upgrade to the high school in order to accommodate increased enrollment and upgrade from deteriorating building conditions.

The current high school building is 449,700 square feet and was built in 1968, with additions made in 1998 and 2002. The current state of the high school falls below standards, and raises the prospect that the city could lose accreditation of its high school over the next few years, unless significant progress is made on the building.

After back and forth between the school district and the city council about a site, the MSBA, which helps pay for school building projects, imposed a timeline for the city if it wanted to get money from the state to help pay for any of it.

The City Council and the School Committee voted to go with the School Department's preferred location about a mile away on the Stigmatine property, in large part because of the size - it's 43 acres. At one point the owners, a religious order, put the property on the market, according to court documents. The city-owned Fernald property was a strong contender but fell out as an option after officials said they realized environmental issues were bigger than originally thought.

When it became clear that the religious order that owned the Stigmatine property was not interested in selling it to the city, a number of city council members voted against taking the property. But, with the deadline looming last year, the city council changed course and voted to take the site by eminent domain. The issue polarized the city, but eventually the two sides came to an agreement and the city moved forward last year. Then, as plans showed there would be significant blasting of rock during construction that would last years, some neighbors have raised concern about what that might mean for them.

Read more:

• 5 Things To Know About Back To School In Waltham
• Waltham High School Project Gets Neighborhood Liaison...
• Waltham School Officials Share High School Project ...

Look at the 590 page document, comments and city responses begin around page 300.

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).