In Baltimore County, a $500,000 Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Port Administration (MDOT MPA) grant awarded to Turner Station community will help restore public recreation areas, add walking trails and a boardwalk, and strengthen 2,600 feet of shoreline at Fleming Park.
Located along Bear Creek, near the Port of Baltimore, 16-acre Fleming Park will be restored using sediment dredged from channels leading to the Port.
The proposed improvements include public recreation areas with open fields, walking trails that will allow visitors to observe birds and other wildlife, and a boardwalk that will provide access to the Patapsco River.
The shoreline will be reinforced and strengthened to accommodate rising water levels due to climate change. The project will be developed in four phases.
The MDOT MPA grant will help Turner Station undertake the first phase, which includes community outreach and education, pre-design, design and engineering, and permitting.
The MDOT MPA is the largest creator of wetlands in Maryland due to its award-winning dredged material management program which rebuilds islands and landside acreage in Maryland using channel sediment. Several past projects have had major impacts in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Poplar Island in Talbot County and Hart-Miller Island near Baltimore have both been rebuilt to their original footprints using channel sediment after decades of erosion whittled both to less than ten percent of their original size.
Another project, Masonville Cove in Baltimore City, was the former home of Kurt Iron and Metal and the Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. A massive environmental restoration effort, part of the construction of the Masonville Dredged Material Containment Facility, was completed in 2008.
Today, Masonville Cove includes walking trails, a fishing pier, and an environmental education center. In 2013, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated Masonville Cove as the nation’s first Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership.
source: Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Port Administration
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