WILLIAMSBURG — The completion of the Depot Road culvert was celebrated this week with a small ceremony involving a local resident and a former town administrator driving across it.
“I was honored that Superintendent Banister asked me to do it,” said Charlene Nardi, the former town administrator. “I am so thrilled that this project has been completed.”
Highway Superintendent Dan Banister said that during the ceremony, the barricades were moved away and Roger Graves, who lives near the culvert and was an advocate for the project, drove across it.
After Graves, Banister said that Nardi “drove through right behind him.”
Nardi said that discussions on replacing the culvert began before she became town administrator in 2011.
Replacing the culvert was something Nardi worked on during her tenure as town administrator and she was involved in securing the $350,00 grant that helped fund the $500,000-plus project.
“It looks wonderful,” Nardi said. “The contractor did a really good job.”
Nardi also praised the work of local resident Jim Hyslip, Banister and her successor, Nicholas Caccamo, in making the project happen.
“It’s exciting to see climate-resilient infrastructure in action,” Caccamo said.
And he noted how the heavy rain on Tuesday demonstrated the superiority of the new culvert compared to the one it replaced. Banister said the new culvert has “made a huge difference,” and that steel plates had been on the road above it for years due to sinkholes.
The culvert replacement began in October and was done by J.H. Maxymillian of Pittsfield. The company worked on the project throughout the winter.