Deer Island: Urban Wilds, Harbor Views and a Treatment Plant

A few weeks ago, one of my sobrinas (a niece on the Peruvian side of the family) who is also an engineer paid us a visit.  Where to take her?  On a tour of her tia's engineering projects, where else!

After picking her up at Boston's Logan Airport, we took a short drive to Deer Island, which includes some of my projects from the 1990s when the island went through a major decade-long reconstruction.

Historically, the isle was home to the outcast, from a hospital to treat the incoming refugees from the Irish Potato Famine to a prison as well as the city's wastewater treatment plant.  It was not a place to visit!

In the remake of Deer Island, an
urban wild was created to buffer the
wastewater treatment plan.

The 1990s saw an extreme make-over of Deer Island.  The state of Massachusetts was under a court order to clean up Boston Harbor and end the dumping of partially treated (i.e., primary treated) sewage just off the tip of the island.  A brand new treatment plant would replace the prison and old plant.  To hide the facility from the nearby residents in Winthrop, they would take the drumlin (glacially-deposited hill) in the middle of the island and move it to the north side, creating an urban wild to buffer the plant.

The public access plan we developed
called for full-perimeter public access.
This section, designed by a different
firm, shows the perimeter walkway
above the 8-ton revetment that
protects the shoreline.

Many of us civil engineers worked on various facets of the treatment plant and surroundings.  My work was to manage a bit of the design of part of the plant, but mostly involved the sitework in and around the various structures.  While much of the work was utilities buried in the ground, the public access plan and shoreline protection are what is most visible to the visiting public.

The public access plan we developed called for full-perimeter public access.  The views are spectacular:

• To the east is Massachusetts Bay and the outer harbor islands.  
• To the west is Boston Harbor, the inner islands, the Boston skyline and Logan Airport.  

A previous effort by another firm said this was not feasible near the marine facility (dock and pier), but our plan moved the pathway landward so as to keep the public away from the hazardous area.

The western shoreline protection at
Deer Island was the product of  a
design that I managed.

I was design manager for two major sitework con-tracts.  The  shoreline pro-tection shown above on the right was designed by another firm, but included in the first of these con-tracts.  In the second con-tract, the western shore-line protection (see photo at left) was the product of our design work.  Along each of these shorelines, public pathways (see photo above) were designed by another firm and build in a subsequent sitework contract.

With With great views from the top of the new drumlin, the design of the buffer included a series of pathways up and around.  The photos below will give you a tour of the urban wilds and the vistas available to the public

Pathways circle and climb the buffering drumlin on the north side of Deer
Island.  The following photos illustrate the views from the pathways.

Large meadow in a nook of the new drumlin, with views of Spectacle and
Thompson Islands and Dorchester on the mainland beyond.

View to the north shows the silhouette of the Town of Winthrop.

Two views of the new treatment plan.  In the view on the right, Long
Island  is visible in the background.

Overview of the treatment plant:  from the foreground is the secondary
clarifires, then the aerobic and anaerobic selectors,  the primary clarifiers,
the grit removal facilities, with the egg-shaped sludge digesters in the
background.

Only 2 miles from Logan Airport, a plane is on a landing pattern over the
nearby Town of Winthrop.

Also visible is the skyline of Boston, only about 4 miles away.

With the dusk settling in, we left Deer Island on the one access road
(designed  by the author!)

Sunset at the Beach

Sunday, July 4th, we spent the evening walking Revere Beach (north of Boston) and stayed to enjoy the sunset. We were treated to the visual effect of an ever shifting palate of colors, both in the sky and clouds over the water (in the east) and over the marsh (to the west). We call this the "pink moment," inspirted by a friend from Ojai, CA, who introduced us to that term.

Above right: A rainbow in the sky points to a couple walking along the ocean's edge.

Below: The clouds above appeared like a giant watercolor, maybe by someone influenced by Monet.


Below: Dramatic steaks of light and shaddow across the cloudy sky to the west.

Below: Two views to the west. I love the dramatic contrast of light and shadow.

Barrier Beaches and Oceanscapes

Summer and beaches. Vacation time, relaxing in the warmth of the sun. With the very short summer we had here in the Boston (Massachusetts, USA) area, I only had a couple of visits to the beach.

Still, beaches are beautiful in any season or time of day. Being fair-skinned, I tend to visit the beach in the late afternoon or early evening when the sun’s burning rays are much less intense.

Many of the beaches along the east coast of the US are classified as barrier beaches. The largest and most famous of these is Cape Cod, a long peninsula extending line a bent arm off the coast of Massachusetts.

A barrier beach is are typically a narrow strip of sand between the ocean and a tidal lagoon or marsh behind it. It is formed by wave action. The waves roll up the shoreline and desposit sand. Eventually it builds up to form a dune.


The two beaches I visited this year are both barrier beaches. Revere Beach is the gem of its namesake city and the oldest public beach in the US. Good Harbor Beach is a small, community beach in Gloucester, a city known for its fishing industry.

Even with much development around each beach, the aerial photos reveal the classic barrier beach configuration of a narrow sand bar.

Here are a few pictures from my trips to the beach.


Above: Revere Beach

Below: Good Harbor Beach

Above: View of the town of Nahant on a peninsula off the coast of Revere Beach

Below: A house, typical of fishing communities (complete with widdow's watch) built on a rock cliff overlooking Good Harbor Beach





Below: a small island offshore from Good Harbor Beach.





Below: Views of the dunes at Revere Beach (left) and Good Harbor Beach (right)






Below: Sunset at Good Harbor Beach (here I am, standing in shallow water, risking a water-soaked cell phone if a big wave breaks on me!)















Above and below: Sunset at Revere Beach. Time to go home.