Waterplace Park Dredging About to Begin

A long-awaited dredging project on Waterplace Park in downtown Providence is expected to begin within days, the RI Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) reports.

The CRMC Council approved the maintenance dredge permit at its October 8 meeting.

As the state’s dredging coordinator, the CRMC will be working with project manager The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Rhode Island, as well as the City of Providence, and other partners to remove approximately 22,000 cubic yards of material from bank to bank from the Amtrak bridge under the Providence Place Mall to the Crawford Street Bridge piers.

The material will be beneficially reused at a redevelopment site in the city and possibly to cap a landfill in Pawtucket, and the silty material will either be beneficially reused by TNC for marsh creation and elevation in the Seekonk River, or trucked to a Providence Redevelopment lot at 70 Houghton Street.

As reported, CRMC plans to begin the dredging November 15, 2019 and the two dredges will be running 24 hours a day, seven days a week until February 15, 2020.