Waterfront On Path To New Over-Water Walkway

Emily Linroth is a Bellingham resident and the managing editor for Whatcom Watch. She studies environmental journalism.

Bellingham residents may soon have new waterfront access as plans move forward on an over-water walkway to create a continuous path from The Waterfront District to Fairhaven.

Although the project still needs to go through a permitting process and several contaminated waterfront sites need to be cleaned up, the city is going ahead with design plans for the over-water walkway, according to Gina Austin, a project engineer with the city of Bellingham. If everything goes smoothly, construction could begin as early as late 2011, Austin said.

The walkway will stretch from the south end of an old landfill at Cornwall Avenue to the north end of Boulevard Park, and will cost between $6 million and 9 million at project completion, Austin said.

Funding will come from a Greenways Levy, a federal grant specifically for an over-water walkway, and a real estate excise tax for its design, according to the Parks and Recreation Department project Web site.

The Parks and Recreation Department contracted engineering consulting firm Reid Middleton to produce a feasibility study for the site, which it completed in September 2009. Parks and Recreation is now working with consulting firm Berger/ABAM on permitting and design for the project, Austin said.

Construction of the walkway is projected to finish in 2012.

Many waterfront areas in Bellingham have multiple owners, and the site of the proposed walkway is no different. The port is currently responsible for the Cornwall Avenue Landfill site, but the location where the walkway would meet land is managed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DNR also owns the tidelands under the future walkway, as well as the landing at Boulevard Park, Austin said. The rest of the park is divided between city and county ownership.

The city and port are engaged in land transfer negotiations that could change who manages which portions of the waterfront. The city is in the process of surveying and defining property boundaries along the bay, Austin said. It plans to release a map with updated boundaries to the public in about one month.

After ownership boundaries are defined, the city will begin applying for permits for the project, a process it expects to go through 2011, Austin said.

The permit process could take years. Acquiring permits for Taylor Avenue Dock, the dock and boardwalk that connects Boulevard Park to Fairhaven, took approximately five years, Austin said. Parks and Recreation plans to work on the walkway design so it will be ready when the permit process finishes.

“When [the] final permit is in hand, we will be ready to bid,” Austin said.

During this time, the state Department of Ecology (Ecology) will oversee cleanup of the three contaminated sites in the path of the walkway, Austin said. Each will need remediation before construction of the walkway begins.

Ecology will also work with the involved parties to make sure shoreline management requirements are met, said Katie Skipper, communications manager with the Department of Ecology Bellingham Field Office.

Once permits are obtained and cleanup at the three sites is completed, construction will begin on the walkway.

The current design for the walkway forms an arc outward toward the bay, extending approximately 2,400 feet from Boulevard Park to the Cornwall Avenue Landfill site, which eventually will be converted into a park. The walkway will be 300 feet from shore at its widest point, which is slightly farther out than the beach near the railroad by Boulevard Park. This will allow the public to have an over-water experience without increasing costs or causing interference with boats, Austin said.

The walkway will be made of concrete and steel grates, supported by hollow steel pillars driven into the bedrock below the bay, Austin said. The base of the walkway will be 10 feet above the surface of the water at low tide and two or three feet above at high tide.

The design will be similar to and improve on Taylor Avenue Dock, Austin said. For one thing, it will be wider. Austin said Parks and Recreation has determined any type of walking structure needs to be at least 14 feet wide to accommodate two-way traffic. Taylor Dock is only 12 feet wide.

“There’s too many conflicts with biking, children, dogs; it’s just not wide enough,” Austin said of Taylor Avenue Dock. “So we’re proposing 14 [feet] on this one.”

The walkway will widen by four to six feet in some areas to support benches and rest areas. The new walkway also will not have a shelter like Taylor Dock, a decision that came about with public process, Austin said.

Parks & Recreation also plans to have engineers pour more concrete test panels before pouring the panels on the actual walkway to ensure the best possible results, Austin said. The first few panels poured for Taylor Dock were not its best, Austin said.

The process of pouring concrete for Taylor Dock was complicated because the concrete had to be loaded onto ships from Harris Shipyard and hauled out to the site, Austin said. This was sometimes hindered by waves and weather.

“You can’t just back [a very large concrete truck] up onto the dock,” Austin said.

Because pouring concrete for an over-water structure is so difficult, the new walkway will use a series of pumps – one on shore, and at least one booster along the way – to get the concrete from shore to the walkway.

The walkway will require a shoreline conditional use permit, an agreement reached by the city and the state and then approved by Ecology, said Department of Ecology Senior Environmental Planner Barry Wenger. The permit will make sure the aesthetics of the waterfront are maintained and that the project serves the public interest.

After negotiations are completed, Parks and Recreation will open the permit to a 30-day public comment period. It hopes to accomplish this in six months, Austin said.

The primary environmental consideration of this project is protecting eelgrass, Wenger said. Eelgrass provides critical habitat for juvenile salmon, who like to hug the shoreline as they move up the coast, Wenger said. The walkway will cross two areas with eelgrass, one near the Cornwall Avenue Landfill and one at the north end of Boulevard Park.

Eelgrass is very light-dependent, only growing in shallow areas. If the walkway is built too close to the eelgrass, it could limit light, which could cause the eelgrass to decline or die out completely. Too much shade would also discourage young salmon from staying near shore, causing them to move into deeper water and increasing the likelihood they would be eaten by predators, Wenger said.

To mitigate loss of light, the walkway will feature metal grates that allow more light through than a solid surface.

Ecology and Parks and Recreation will need to develop a monitoring plan for eelgrass and other endangered and threatened species to ensure populations do not suffer as a result of the walkway, Austin said.

Although Austin said the project has been well-received, some public opposition centers around the cost of the project and the necessity of it.

The project has been in the Waterfront Futures Group’s plan as well as city and port plans, and funding for it was written into the Greenways Levy, Austin said.

Austin said other construction plans in The Waterfront District are independent of the walkway project. For example, if the cleanup of the Cornwall Avenue Landfill is not complete by the time construction is ready to begin for the walkway, the city will probably try to find a temporary access route through the landfill site.

“With federal funding, we’re tasked with spending it, and every day there’s a chance it could be rescinded for budget issues,” Austin said.

Some citizens question the need for an over-water walkway when the city already has the South Bay Trail that runs from downtown to Boulevard Park.

Austin said the South Bay Trail is separated from the shoreline by the railroad, and the trail could not be opened up unless the railroad was no longer there, a scenario she said she does not see happening. The South Bay Trail also crosses the railroad at two points, while the over-water walkway would not. In 2008, a woman was killed at the crossing at the north entrance to Boulevard Park. Austin said there have been proposals to remove the other crossing at Wharf Street entirely, cutting off access.

The over-water walkway will serve as an important connection to the waterfront, Austin said.

“This is really a direct route and it’s the direct connector on the waterfront to the waterfront,” Austin said. §

• Over-water walkway project site: http://www.cob.org/government/departments/parks/projects/boulevard-over-water-walkway.aspx

• Bellingham Bay cleanup site map, details and progress: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/tcp/sites/blhm_bay/sites/bel_bay_sites.html.