Earth Support Corp

Worcester CountyMassachusetts

Leicester, Massachusetts

2 high-hazard dams are rated in poor or unsatisfactory condition. Bedrock sits a median 15 ft down across 392 logs, shallower than the Massachusetts median of 24 ft.

Median depth to bedrock

15 ft

middle half 10–26 ft · 392 logs

Bridges rated poor

0

of 7 inventoried

State resilience grants

$2.9M

2 awards on file

Poor high-hazard dams

2

National Inventory of Dams

01 · Dams & disasters

2 high-hazard dams need work

FEMA Public Assistance is reported by county, so the figure below is Worcester County-wide context, not a Leicester number.
High-hazard dams in poor condition in Leicester
DamConditionBuilt
Brick City Mill Pond DamKettle BrookUnsatisfactory
Rochdale Pond DamFrench RiverPoor

High hazard potential means failure would probably cost lives — it rates the consequences, not the dam’s condition.

FEMA Public Assistance, Worcester County

$85.3M

Federal share obligated across 882 projects in 9 declared disasters since 2010. The largest category is emergency protective measures (91%); roads & bridges took $723K.
Dams, disasters & moving ground

02 · Ground

Rock turns up a median 15 ft down

From 392 depth-to-rock records inside Leicester (MassGIS / MGS borings & well logs). Logs cluster where people drill wells and bore for roads, so treat this as the town’s pattern, not a site answer.

Half of Leicester's logs reach rock between 10 and 26 ft

Depth to bedrock: 10th–90th percentile whisker, middle-half box, median tick; dashed line = Massachusetts median.
median 15 ft
MA 24 ft
0204060 ft
0501001500–5 ft5–10 ft10–20 ft20–50 ft50–100 ft100+ ft
n = 392 logsSource: MassGIS / MGS borings & well logs
▸ Show the numbers
Depth to rock (ft)Logs
0–531
5–1061
10–20146
20–50107
50–10028
100+19

Rock within 10 ft

32%

of logs (23% across Massachusetts). Shallow rock means ledge in excavations, refusal for driven piles and rock anchors rather than soil nails; deep ground means taller shoring and more groundwater. 11% of logs here go past 50 ft.

03 · Money & permits

$2.9M in state resilience grants, 2 awards

State resilience grant awards in Leicester
ProjectYearAward
Stiles Reservoir Dam RepairFY2017$1.9M
Waite Pond Dam RepairFY2020$1.0M

04 · Bridges

None of Leicester's 7 bridges is rated poor

Every highway bridge and large culvert in the 2025 National Bridge Inventory that stands inside Leicester. Median age 26 years; 2 posted for weight.

57% good, 0% poor

FHWA good / fair / poor rating — the lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert.
  • Good4 · 57%
  • Fair3 · 43%
  • Poor0 · 0%
n = 7 structuresSource: FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025
▸ Show the numbers
BuiltStructures
1950s2
1990s1
2000s3
2010s1

05 · Next door

Leicester and the 6 towns that border it

A dash means no data for that layer, not zero.
Leicester compared with neighbouring towns
TownPoor bridgesRock depth
Leicester, MA0 / 715 ft
Worcester, MA8 / 11920 ft
Auburn, MA9 / 4620 ft
Oxford, MA3 / 3425 ft
Charlton, MA1 / 2615 ft
Spencer, MA1 / 1221 ft
Paxton, MA18 ft

Where these numbers come from

Method, sources & caveats

Leicester is the Census county subdivision 2502734795 (Worcester County). Every record is placed here by its coordinates, not by the place name the source uses.

  • Towns are Census county subdivisions: cities, towns, plantations, and Maine/New Hampshire unorganized territories and townships. Every record is placed in a town by its coordinates (point-in-polygon), not by the source's own place label — so a bridge in Roxbury counts for Boston and a well in 'North Waltham' counts for Waltham.
  • Bridges: FHWA NBI 2025, highway structures ≥ 20 ft including large culverts. 'Poor' is FHWA's good/fair/poor rating (lowest of deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert ≤ 4). Percent-poor is shown only for towns with at least 5 structures.
  • Depth to bedrock is the median of driller- and boring-reported depths in the town, shown only where at least 10 logs exist. Water-well logs over-sample rural lots and hilltops; one town median never describes a particular site.
  • Bedrock depths use the same state databases and filters as the Bedrock & soils module (bedrock wells and borings that reached rock, 0 < depth ≤ 400 ft, exact re-filings dropped), but every log is placed in a town by its coordinates rather than the driller's town field, so town counts can differ slightly between the two pages. Connecticut and Rhode Island have no statewide public well-log database with depths.
  • Dams: only high-hazard-potential dams whose latest condition assessment is Poor or Unsatisfactory are counted (live NID). Connecticut and Rhode Island assessments may lag.
  • FEMA Public Assistance dollars are federal share obligated for disasters declared since 2010, reported by county — they are county context, not a town figure.
  • Grant awards are Massachusetts only (EEA Dam & Seawall program, MVP Action grants, CZM Coastal Resilience). Other states' programs are not yet included.
  • Ground-related permit counts cover only the municipal portals the pipeline reads (Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Worcester, Framingham, Providence, Portsmouth, Hartford and a few others) — an absent count means 'not covered', not zero.
Data as of
Sep 11, 2026
Generated
Sep 11, 2026
Records
367,748
Refresh
Live pull · weekly

Published by Earth Support Corp as a public resource. Regional statistics for planning and curiosity. They are not an engineering report, a bid recommendation or a statement about any particular site, firm or project. Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it. Full method: methodology.

CallStart Quote