Author(s)

R Sands & C Chang

Abstract

Smelt Brook collects flow from a basin that drains the majority of the township of Weymouth Landing, Massachusetts located south of Boston. The brook quickly forms a confluence with the Monatiquot River forming the tidal influenced Weymouth Fore River. A recent engineering design effort to reestablish rail transportation through Weymouth Landing has impacted the existing 183-cm circular culvert that conveys Smelt Brook underneath the township. This culvert acts as a 300-meter passage for Rainbow Smelt fish to reach additional breeding locations upstream of the town where the brook flows on the surface. The rail segment requires a modified shallow cut through this particular area forcing a change in shape of the culvert from circular to box and a lowering of the top of the conduit by 0.612 meters. This paper reports the analysis conducted to determine the impacts of the culvert changes on the velocity and salinity profile on this breeding ground. The primary goal of the overall study was to determine the impact on smelt fish migration along the tidally influenced Smelt Brook, but this document is solely focused on the activities addressing the determination of the hydraulic changes toward this end.

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