UPDATED: Here come the quarry trucks

In case you missed it: Watch out if you live or drive on Route One or Route Two
By Will Collette

Botka's site right at the northern end of Pasquisset Pond. 15.37 acres. [Google Earth screen shot]

No, for once, this is not a story about the infamous Copar Quarry, but an entirely different new challenge.

Watch for greatly increased truck traffic between mid-April and June originating at the Botka quarry site in northern Charlestown, moving down Botka Drive to Route Two then Route One and then on to Airport Road in Westerly to ultimately end up at Misquamicut.

A $3.1 million contract was awarded to MZM Construction of Newark, NJ to restore the state beach. 

MZM is subcontracting the actual trucking to Gallagher Equipment of Burrillville which will pick up the 84,000 cubic yards of sand mined by Botka Construction which is doing business as Rhode Island Sand and Spring. 

UPDATED: According to the Westerly Sun, the trucks that will be used for this project carry almost four times as much as a regular sized dump truck used in my original April 2nd calculations (38 cubic years per load as opposed to 10). Sixteen trucks will be used to make the 39 mile round trip from Botka's quarry to Misquamicut Beach. Instead of 8,400 trips, these 16 trucks will make 2,211 round-trips, give or take.

These trucks have approximately 45 days if they work six days a week to complete the job. Each truck will have to make 138 thirty-nine mile round-trips. That's at least three trips a day where they have to load at one end and unload at the other. 



The average dump truck can haul approximately 10 cubic yards of material so we should see a total of 8,400 round-trips over the roughly 45 days this project is supposed to run. The work will run about 10 hours a day. Doing the math, that's 16,800 one-way trips divided by 45 days or over 370 truck trips per day. Divide by 10 and that means that every hour, 37 trucks will be hauling ass along Route Two and Route One.

Botka’s quarry site is on the north shore of Pasquiset Pond and has stirred its own controversy when our town Zoning Officer Joe Warner issued a Notice of Violation and Cease & Desist order in 2011 for what he saw as clear violations of Charlestown law resulting in an illegal mine.

Botka’s quarry is located in a residential zoned area. Joe’s NOV cited prohibited uses in a residential area including storing junk vehicles; storing boats, trailers and other “major recreational equipment;” storing large commercial vehicles; operating a “contractor’s yard” and running an “earth extractive industry.” He ordered Botka to stop. Read the full Notice of Violation by clicking here.

On appeal, and over Joe’s vigorous objections, the Zoning Board of Review overturned the NOV. The dispute is still alive as John & Debra Williams and Sandra McMinn have brought suit in Superior Court to challenge the Zoning Board's decision. 

Note please that when the Zoning Board of Review ruled in favor of the proposed Whalerock wind turbine project, the Town of Charlestown sued the zoning board to get that decision overturned.

Indeed, the town showed it would spare no expense and would bend or ignore the Town Charter to fight that ZBR decision all the way, including paying $50,000 in your money to fund a lawyer to represent private "anonymous abutters."

In this case of alleged illegal mining, the town left it to the private parties to file suit, on their own nickel, to challenge the ZBR decision. 

Contrast the town's conduct on Whalerock with its benign neglect treatment of Copar's neighbors and Botka's neighbors. Then ask yourself what you have to do to get the town's protection. 

Maybe it will make a difference to the CCA-dominated Town Council that half of Charlestown will be affected by the parade of heavy trucks. But with these CCA Party guys, money talks.

Here's Botka Drive, a private road. This is where each truck's round trip journey will begin and end.

MZM got the no-bid contract from the Corps of Engineers because it is deemed to be a disadvantaged, small business. It is owned by an African American woman, Marjorie Perry, though by no reasonable measure is the company either small or disadvantaged, having won millions of dollars in contracts for Sandy recovery work and big commercial projects in the NY metro area.

To meet the June 1 completion target date, the work will be done from 7 AM to 5 PM and may also include Saturdays.

Meanwhile, Charlestown’s flawed mining ordinance that was supposed to finally bring some law & order to a largely unregulated industry is off in limbo. It’s not on the agenda for the Planning Commission’s April 2 meeting.