Fjord Trail South Construction: Dockside to Little Stony Point
Main takeaways from the DGEIS:
Five (5) years of noise from rock breaking, drilling, and hammering
Disturbance to a sensitive aquatic ecosystem
Limited access to Dockside and Little Stony Point for six (6) years
Construction vehicles navigating Main Street and Lunn Terrace for six (6) years
Delays to commuters going to and from the train station
Delays on 9D as large trucks transfer materials for Little Stony Point
The DGEIS provides new information about construction of the proposed boardwalk from Dockside to Little Stony Point. This would be a huge, noisy, and disruptive construction project that would take 6 years to complete.
Because the area between Dockside and Little Stony Point contains sensitive aquatic habitat, they propose a “top-down” construction method, where the heavy equipment inches along the concrete structure as it is built.
This construction method is tortuously slow. The stretch from Dockside to Little Stony Point would require approximately 142 20-foot spans, and each span would take 8-9 days to complete.
They plan to start from each end and meet in the middle, working 6 months out of each year, and estimate it will take 5 years to complete the main boardwalk, plus an additional year to tie in at each end.
The construction method is detailed in the DGEIS:
“Construction would occur from the trail itself as it is constructed using a multi-tool excavator and a crane. … The excavator would be used to clear riprap using a rock breaker and bucket to break up and clear large boulders from pile locations and an auger drill attachment to displace medium sized boulders. The excavator would use a vibratory hammer attachment to progress the first 20-foot section of steel pipe pile through fill, and an open-ended diesel hammer attachment to drive the steel pipe piles through remaining soft soils and dense glacial till. The excavator would lift a precast capping beam into place on top of piles and cast-in-place concrete, delivered from a hopper barge, would be poured into the pile. Piles would require welded splices, which would require compressors and/or generators. A crane would lift the superstructure beams into place and then the deck plants onto the beams. Installation of the superstructure, deck panels, fencing, and handrails may require pneumatic drills, which would generate intermittent noise.”
According to the DGEIS, each of the 142 spans would require 2 hours of rock breaking and drilling, plus 4 to 6 hours of hammering. That’s a total of 852 to 1,136 hours of rock breaking, drilling, and hammering using heavy machinery to install the required 284 piles. Noise levels would be as high as 90 dBA during pile installation.
The piles (steel tubes) would be up to 120 feet long, delivered in 20-foot sections. Each new span requires two piles, two 2-foot thick concrete beams, and approximately twenty 12-foot long by 8-inch thick precast concrete planks. These materials and the equipment would be delivered by truck to the staging areas on Dockside (via the Lunn Terrace bridge) and Little Stony Point (via the narrow bridge over the tracks by the Little Stony Point Visitor Center). The piles get filled with concrete from a barge.
What this adds up to:
Five years of noise from rock breaking, drilling, and hammering
Disturbance to a sensitive aquatic ecosystem
Limited access to Dockside and Little Stony Point for six years
Construction vehicles navigating Main Street and Lunn Terrace for six years
Delays to commuters going to and from the train station
Delays on 9D as large trucks transfer materials for Little Stony Point