Posted on February 26, 2018
By Jennifer Turiano, greenwich time
Town officials met face-to-face with officials from the Port Authority and Army Corps of Engineers about dredging in Greenwich Harbor for the first time this month, getting ready for what could be a long, arduous project.
The dredging project was listed as a priority when the Harbor Management Plan was passed by ordinance in October.
The federal channel has not been dredged since 1955, and an estimated 120,000 cubic yards of material is slated to be removed, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. About half of that material was proven unsuitable for open water disposal in a 2012 study, Harbor Management Commission Chairman Bruce Angiolillo said.
“We’re at the early stages,” Angiolillo said. “This is going to be a complicated project to solve for because we’ve got to figure out what we are going to do with this material.
“In the Mianus River dredge project, 100 percent of the material was suitable for open water disposal,” he said. “The big thing we are solving for in the Greenwich Harbor project is: Half the material is not suitable, so what can we do? One possibility is to use some of that material to expand Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, or maybe use some of the material at the head of the harbor between Grass Island and the park to rebuild marshland.”
First Selectman Peter Tesei said he favors using the dredged material to expand and enhance Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, which he sees as one of Greenwich’s greatest assets.
By gathering different sectors of government together on the project, more funds and manpower will be available. Parks and Recreation and the Department of Public Works, for example, support the project.
“That has be come a desirable venue for many of the events that draw people into Greenwich,” Tesei said. “Whether it be the Concourse, the Food and Wine Festival, the Greenwich Town Party, and some other subsidiary events for different not-for-profits that they’ve hosted on that site.
“Next to it is a building that houses our parks and trees facilities,” he said. “I really have been desirous of seeing that relocated and having that building removed with the idea that it would open more space to accommodate venues and be much more attractive appeal to the park.”
Relocating those facilities and expanding the park through the dredging project could drastically alter the Interstate-95 Exit 3 landscape as motorists enter Greenwich, he said.
Discussions are in the beginning stages. It is ultimately up to the Army Corps of Engineers to decide what will be done with the dredge material. It could also be mixed with cement to be used as fill or disposed of in whatever way the Army Corps deems most sustainable and environmentally conscious.
Source: greenwich time
