May 2, 2019 – Phase II Project Update

May 2, 2019 – Phase II Project Update

The fenced-off section of trail corridor along the Merrimack River behind the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) remains closed to avoid health risks until the City can clean up the contaminated soil.  One of the final actions of the state contractor was to install interim detour signage (see photo below), plus some wheelchair ramp and crosswalk improvements, to temporarily route trail users along Water Street around the riverfront section of trail corridor.  The public has enjoyed using the rest of the new Rail Trail during the winter and early spring, and the City has been working behind the scenes to address the “missing gap” shoreline portion of the Rail Trail.  We have compiled and submitted three grant applications to support clean-up, re-design, permit amendments, and construction to the Newburyport Community Preservation Committee (CPC), the state MassTrails grant program, and the state’s Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grant Program.  We should hear about funding decisions during the late spring and summer of 2019.  The City’s Licensed Site Professional (LSP) consultant Stantec is developing a bid package of plans and specifications for the cleanup of the pcb’s, which will need to be reviewed and approved by National Grid, which owns property and underground electric lines in this vicinity.  If some funding is secured from one or more of the grant programs, the City hopes to be in a position to bid the cleanup project out this summer of 2019.  The remediation will include the excavation of the defined 130-foot area of soil, disposal, post-excavation verification sampling and analysis, backfill and compaction, and then the required reporting to MassDEP and EPA to document completion of the remedial activities during the fall of 2019.  The re-design and local, state, and federal permitting for the riverfront section should take approximately a year.

The Planning Office has been coordinating with the Department of Public Services and others to integrate our approach to this shoreline corridor so that all the public infrastructure located here is protected as much as possible from climate change, storm surge, and sea level rise.  The trail and the WWTP, which provides treatment for all the wastewater generated within the City and portions of Newbury, are located in a low-lying floodplain.  The ground elevation of the rail corridor and the adjacent WWTP ranges from 8 feet to 13 feet; unfortunately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has identified the base flood elevation (BFE) for a 1% annual flood hazard at 12 feet for the WWTP.  The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that sea level rise during the next 50 years will range from a low of 0.65 feet to an intermediate level of 1.64 feet.  If this infrastructure is left unchanged and unprotected, erosion and inundation by intense storms and rising sea levels will undermine the trail corridor as well as the buried electric lines, shut down the treatment plant, cause sewage overflows into the streets, river, and ocean, produce major public health and environmental impacts, and require millions of dollars of lengthy repairs to the damage.  The City has coordinated with three consultants, GZA, Stantec, and Dewberry, and developed a conceptual plan for the shoreline trail corridor which includes cleaning up the contaminated soil, and designing and amending permits for an elevated and reconstructed 14-foot revetment along the shoreline and a 14.5-foot berm with the Rail Trail on top.  On a parallel track, the City will design 14’ concrete floodwalls to wrap inland around the eastern and western ends of the WWTP back to Water Street, which is at about elevation 14 feet, as well as design a pump station and diversion of stormwater around the WWTP.  Completion of this initiative will protect the trail and the WWTP for many decades from storm surge and sea level rise, and will avoid a number of costs. 

On another note, we have been working with several artists regarding the installation of some additional sculpture along the new Rail Trail this summer.