As part of the #VisionChelseaCreek visioning project, we will be exploring resilient design BMP's (best management practices) that could inform and leverage any future resiliency planning efforts, thus assuring that any redevelopment and capital improvements of the area has resiliency of the neighborhoods in mind and is at the forefront of their planning. A more resilient shoreline means finding resilient solutions that will reduce coastal risks and vulnerabilities for everyone (communities, industry, habitats) and that requires all hands on deck in this visioning process. With #VisionChelseaCreek, we have the support of highly-skilled and experienced technical experts in landscape architecture, urban planning and design and transportation and zoning that will help us shape the best and most resilient future for East Boston.
What would you like to learn about resilient design? What are your concerns about the flood risks and on a more broader scale, climate impacts, of this area? Have you seen or experienced flooding along Route 1A or in an adjacent neighborhood?
The #VisionChelseaCreek site has been unused and abandoned for decades, after the railroad was decommissioned in the 1950’s, although the water pumping station/Chelsea Water Works at the south end was still in service. The waterway, the Chelsea Creek, which is the lower part of the Mystic River, however is a water resource and never stops being a water resource and just because humans stop using it’s edge, it doesn’t stop functioning like a tidal creek. If you look at old maps, before the major landfilling of this part of East Boston happened, the Chelsea Creek was connected through a smaller creek that flowed from the river all the way to the other side and to the Belle Isle Inlet, Harbor…