Bridge Rebuilt at No Cost to Town


By Laura Griffin

March 13, 2003

Who said no one wins the lottery? By next fall, Milton’s likely to have a new footbridge at Pope’s Pond as well as a restored and rejuvenated park and trail, thanks to Northeastern University’s civil engineering students who offered the bonanza to the town because they want to build a bridge.

A new footbridge at Pope’s Pond, as well as restored area trails and park benches, are part of a community service project outlined to selectmen on March 3 by Marc Gabriel, vice-chairman of the Northeastern University Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Mr. Gabriel, a junior at Northeastern (NU), told board members that his chapter was selecting its summer community project and chose Pope’s Pond because "We’ve never done a bridge before." Mr. Gabriel also said that he’d worked with consultants studying Pine Tree Brook and found the area beautiful.

Northeastern’s student members of ASCE have successfully completed hundreds of community projects in the chapter’s 60 year history, including most recently the design and construction of an alternate route of the Freedom Trail for handicapped persons. The Northeastern chapter has been acclaimed nationally for prizewinning projects at Cooper Community Center and the Philoxenia House which included sewer repair and concrete walkways as well.

Northeastern ASCE student members Greg Morse, a junior; Justin Mosca, sophomore, and Andrew Markartan, a middler, accompanied Mr. Gabriel to the selectmen’s meeting. Mr. Morse joined in the presentation to the board.

Under the plan, the students will direct and oversee the project including the permitting process, then building a footbridge crossing Pope’s Pond at Pine Tree Brook and installing two to three benches on the west side of the bridge. Also on the drawing board is a gate at the park’s entrance from Lafayette Street as well as the rehabilitation of the old trail from Lafayette Street to Blue Hills Parkway.

"We’re excited about this project," David Colton, Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) told selectmen, noting that students, alumni and friends provide the labor, equipment and supplies.

However, Mr. Colton asked selectmen to authorize a $10,000 emergency fund which the board approved. To date, all community projects undertaken by the Northeastern student chapter of ASCE have been completed at no cost and the students expect Milton’s project to be no exception.

"We’ve never needed funding for any project," Mr. Gabriel said, observing that alumni and friends, often, contribute cash donations as well as equipment and supplies and labor for community projects. "They (alumni) come in and get their hands dirty."

Pope’s Pond is tucked away in a 48-acre natural preserve located between Sumner Street and Blue Hills Parkway. At the turn of the century, the pond supplied ice for the town’s flourishing ice industry and remnants of the equipment and dormitories can still be found on the banks.

The property, purchased for $35,000 by the town in 1963, is complemented by additional acreage across Blue Hills Parkway known as Article 38 property or the former Lamb estate.

Wildlife, such as rabbits, ducks, turtles and snakes abound in the preserve and some residents claim pheasants and otters make occasional visits. The warm water pond offers catfish, bullheads, eels and yellow perch.

Nearly three years ago, Richard Russell, president of the Pine Tree Brook Neighborhood Association offered personal tours of the area to the press, school committee, park commissioners and selectmen after concluding that "A lot of people don’t know it’s there." Mr. Russell targeted the area in an effort to raise awareness of the need for Pine Tree Brook flood control.

After Mr. Russell’s tours, a number of officials acknowledged that they had never seen the area before and described the pond and trail as a hidden jewel and town treasure.

The pond, fed by the runoff from Blue Hills through Pine Tree Brook and Trout Brook, is roughly five acres with shallow water estimated to be no deeper than 10 to 12 feet in the summer.

In the 1970s, Milton’s then Superintendent of Parks Dan O’Leary oversaw plantings, development of trails and the erection of the first footbridge in the area, constructed of iron and covered with wood. The bridge was removed in the early 1990s after it fell into disrepair.