District Hosts Broad Meadows Presentation

At the request of the Quincy, Massachusetts Park and Recreation Department, Larry Oliver, Chief, Evaluation Branch, Engineering/Planning, hosted a site tour and presentation about the Broad Meadows Salt Marsh Restoration Project last month. 

The presentation was part of the city’s monthly Environmental Treasures Program.

According to the USACE, New England District, over 60 people attended the hour and a half presentation, held at the project site in Quincy.

Oliver talked as he and his audience walked the project site, stopping to point out plants and animals and to answer questions.

Topics that Oliver discussed on the tour included the importance of salt marshes, salt marsh ecology and restoration techniques, the dredging history of the Town River project, and the restoration project itself.

During 1938 to 1956, dredged material from the Town River Federal Navigation Project was placed in 106 acres of the salt marsh, degrading it to a non-tidal habitat. According to Oliver, the construction contract to begin rehabilitation was awarded on November 24, 2009. The connection to tidal water was completed in December 2011.

“The $6.2 million project involved the excavation, transport and distribution of approximately 390,000 cubic yards of former dredged materials,” said Oliver. “The project restored approximately 31 acres of salt marsh including salt ponds and tidal channels, four acres of wet meadow grasses and 23 acres of coastal grasslands.”

The project also included public gravel pathways that allow the public to walk through and enjoy the salt marsh.

The city of Quincy cost shared 25-percent of the project, with the federal government picking up the remaining 75-percent.

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