Harbor walk talk

By Rob Marino
Friday, June 6, 2003

Plans for a rail trail and harbor walk running through the city's central waterfront area will surely expand public access along the Merrimack River, but not without much cooperation between city planners, private land owners and local businesses.

Coming from the south, the city's proposed rail trail would essentially leave the old railroad corridor at the American Yacht Club and Mass. Electric substation. That corridor goes "right through the substation, and we're clearly not going through all the transformers," explains Planning Director Nick Cracknell.

"So we're going to leave the rail corridor basically at the yacht club and try to go out around the waterfront, and then we're going to weave our way through all these existing urban uses, all the way over to the Towle Building.

"That's our plan, and there seems to be very strong support for that," Cracknell says.

"There were representatives from the American Yacht Club that were concerned about encroachment, conflicts of users in the marina and vandalism, and we're obviously going to work through those issues as we move through abutting properties. There seemed to be a real sense of 'OK, we can do this.' As long as we work together, we can find a way to make this work from a design standpoint so we don't have problems down the road."

In the central waterfront area, the rail trail will be more pedestrian-oriented than bicycle-friendly as it makes its way from the existing boardwalk to Cashman Park and the Towle Building on the north end. The popular waterfront park already has a public walkway along the river, and the idea is to continue the pedestrian path down to the central waterfront.

"It's not always going to be on the water's edge, but it's going to be close," Cracknell says. "It's a harbor walk versus a rail trail."

Of course, weaving the harbor walk through existing urban areas and businesses will pose some challenges and may require a little fancy footwork on behalf of city planners. For instance, extending the walk under the Route 1 bridge overpass, getting around the old Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) railroad bridge and passing through the River's Edge Condominium complex presents a unique set of obstacles.

During public workshops in April and May, some participants said the railroad bridge represented a major barrier in completing the harbor walk connection since water comes up within feet of its lower truss and floods the existing condominium complex. Others, however, said the railroad bridge is an asset and could support a deck or boardwalk out into the river.

Currently, the developers of River's Edge are seeking amnesty from their state Chapter 91 waterways license related to public access requirements, Cracknell says, because the development was completed before the most current regulations went into effect.

"This is a different ball of wax with the issue of these buildings being right up on the waterfront," Cracknell says about the condominium complex. "They're on the high tide water line, and there isn't much space to get in front of them, and that's clearly where we want to be.

"There's some tricky engineering work that needs to go into this," he says. "The Department of Environmental Protection is working with them to see if we can come up with something that will work for all parties."

Even though there is an amnesty provision under Chapter 91, "it doesn't get you off the hook," Cracknell explains. "It just means that you have a little more wiggle room to negotiate with the Chapter 91 process. They're not off the hook for providing public access. They've even offered up, 'we'll give the right-of-way, if you guys build it.' Nobody's pushing one way or another, other than let's get some reasonable accommodations to get the public from this very active urban park to the central waterfront."

Setting sites on Cashman potential

A variety of improvements for Cashman Park were also suggested at the public workshops, such as accommodating a new soccer field, improving the existing pier for fishing and extending and improving the path along the shore between the boat ramps, which would require reconfiguration of the parking area. Workshop participants also mentioned the need for better links from Merrimac Street businesses to the park, as well as the need for food and related services for the park.

During the May workshop, the concept of boat storage on the launch parking lot was also discussed as a way to support maritime uses and generate some revenue for park maintenance.

"We're looking at ways to improve access and the green space at Cashman Park," says Herb Nolan, from Goody, Clancy & Associates, the firm hired to develop a strategic plan for the waterfront. "I think there's a lot of room for improvement. It's a great park already, and it could be even better."

As for extending the harbor walk, Nolan says he's spoken with top officials at the MBTA and has received assurances the old railroad bridge shouldn't pose too much of a problem in making the full harbor walk connection.

"We were told that there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to get a pedestrian way through that railroad overpass," Nolan says. "We weren't sure until we sat down with the MBTA that that would be possible, so that's really good news.

"We've looked at that very carefully, and we're more and more confident that it can be done," Nolan says. "If you have a park that's that good, you want to make the link to the central waterfront."