By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — One objective of the construction project is to create a safer environment for employees and citizens who use the facility.

A project to upgrade the Casco-Naples Transfer Site & Bulky Waste Facility (TS&BW), which had funding approved by both towns last year, came before the Casco Planning Board for the first time on Monday.

Sebago Technics Senior Project Engineer Craig Burgess presented the site plan review to the board. The TS&BW is located on 449 Leach Hill Rd.

The biggest complaint — other than the potholes that will be addressed by paving — is the lack of flow of traffic dropping off trash and recycling at the transfer site. People tend to pull up to bins on one side. Then, drivers who are at the beginning of the line must put their vehicles in reverse to leave the area, causing a bit of a cluster. 

“First and foremost, this project is aiming to correct the traffic flow,” Burgess said.

After listening to the presentation of the site plan, the planning board voted, 4-0, to support the plan, pending Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approval of permits. 

“The town would start construction of this project this year, either late summer or early fall after the bidding process,” Burgess said.

“What this project is proposing to do is to get rid of the big retaining wall and make it so vehicles can drive through on both sides. There will be new retaining walls to better disperse traffic,” he said.

“Right now, all traffic favors one side of site,” he said.

The design calls for adding more bins so that traffic can go either way. Two bins for cardboard and one for single-sort recycling will be on each side of the facility. Each travel lane will be 19-1/2 feet wide, giving space for a vehicle to move around one that is stopped without endangering life and limb.

Additionally, there will be room for the truck drivers who are hired to remove the bins.

The existing transfer site building will remain standing. However, a new concrete apron will be placed in front of the structure.

One big change will be where vehicles enter and exit but that will be clearly marked, Burgess said. 

The current entrance and current exit to the transfer station will be shifted slightly and those old curb cuts will be abandoned and incorporated into the landscaping. Also, a new chainlink fence and gate will be installed around the facility. 

There was a spot where the transfer site exit conflicted with bulky waste’s entrance, Burgess said.

The new design “defines that better so there’s not so much confusion, so people are not exiting at the same area where community members are coming into the bulky waste facility,” he said.

The bulky waste entrance will be paved, he said.

“The existing concrete pads in the walls are failing. Part of the project involves the replacement of the walls and those pads,” according to Burgess.

“Part of the project is a complete maintenance of the [storm-water management] systems. There will be some tree clearing within the infiltration basins, the retention pond,” he said.

The proposed work will add about one-third of an acre, or .3 acres of additional impervious area around the bulky waste area, Burgess said.