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On Tuesday, November 4, the Sudbury Select Board voted to close out remaining Eversource litigation funds to free cash. The vote was 4-0, with member Dan Carty recusing for the discussion and vote.
As the Sudbury section of the Mass Central Rail Trail is nearly complete, the vote effectively turns the page from an era when the Town was actively trying to block the Eversource transmission line portion of the project. That work was completed before the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) took over to construct the paved surface of the trail and various amenities on top of the buried transmission line.
The Town of Sudbury has become something of a rail trial hub since construction of the Mass Central Rail Trail and the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail advanced to near-completion. There’s one more phase of construction left for the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail — which will take the trail into Framingham from the intersection of the two trails near Union Ave and Station Road.
Much of the opposition to the combined utility/rail trail project focused on electric and magnetic field exposure from the transmission lines. In a recent report prepared by Exponent Inc., levels were found to be near-zero or far below established reference levels.
Electric field levels were found to be near zero (< 0.1 kilovolts per meter (kV/m)) at all measurement locations, while the highest magnetic field level was measured to be 22 milligauss (mG). The “as-measured” model calculations were performed for a representative example road crossing at Peakham Road, accounting for both the as-built burial depth of the duct bank at that location and the loading on the transmission line at the time of measurements. The calculated magnetic-field levels from this model matched well with measured data.
All measured EMF levels were far below the reference levels published by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and the International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety. The reference levels for exposure of the general public published by those organizations are 2,000 mG and 9,040 mG, respectively for magnetic fields and 4.2 kV/m and 5 kV/m, respectively for electric fields.
The Select Board also received an update on a recent Route 20 Corridor Study and economic development plans during the meeting. That included discussion about the rail trails as part of the connectivity between various properties along the corridor.
Town Manager Andy Sheehan also provided high-level commentary to note that the maintenance work for the trails is not expected to be a significant burden for the Department of Public Works.
The meeting marked a dramatic shift from just a few years ago when special interest groups in Sudbury were desperately trying to find legal avenues to block the project after the Town absorbed multiple high-profile losses in Massachusetts courts. Sudbury’s opposition to the combined project dates back a decade or so. With two town-wide rail trails nearly complete, the Town’s attention has turned to the economic development and quality of life opportunities created by the trails.