Would dredging return bustle to riverfront?

Capt. Thomas McGinn, owner of Providence River Boat Co., knows the shallow waters of the upper Providence River as well as anyone.
In the warm months, McGinn guides the 28-foot pontoon boat Proud Mary up the river up to 30 times per week while giving visitors narrated tours of the city.
But even for McGinn, who has been plying these waters for more than a decade, navigating the river can often be a challenge.
Last dredged in the 1990s, the river is now so shallow in places that even the Proud Mary has to dance around obstructions and can’t reach Waterplace Park at low tide. “I know where all those difficult places are, but north of Point Street you can run aground virtually any time,” McGinn said. “I just have to be careful and cannot go into Waterplace Park basin when it’s real low.”
Preventing the river from filling in with natural sediment requires periodic dredging, something neither the city nor state has been eager to finance in recent years. The federal government declined to tap a pool of funds set aside for dredging projects that maintain cargo shipping channels.
As a result, much of the center and eastern side of the river is too shallow for boats even at midtide and the WaterFire lightings must be planned around tidal schedules and closures of the hurricane barrier to keep water inside.
Now the depth of the river and role marine traffic should play in the revitalization of downtown has become a discussion point again as the state begins construction of new public spaces on the former Interstate 195 land.
A planned pedestrian bridge spanning the river has raised concerns from some that it could complicate the already sticky navigation issue by lowering overhead clearance where water is now the deepest.
“I do expect it to be an obstacle,” McGinn said about the new bridge. “If that bridge is very low, it is going to make it harder to get up the river.”
WaterFire Executive Artistic Director Barnaby Evans has proposed a series of design changes to the pedestrian bridge and riverfront park designed to activate the waterfront. They include raising the side of the planned bridge where it crosses the boat channel.
“There is a lot of good news happening: we are transforming the river and building a bridge,” Evans said in a phone interview. “Improving access to the river is good for downtown and new developments. But stepping back, there are areas where a good park could be made better.” By redesigning the bridge to maintain its maximum clearance over the west-bank boat channel, Evans said planners could improve the chances of extending the current riverwalk all the way through the new park and, eventually, all the way to Point Street.
And that, in turn, would allow gently sloping lawns down to the river, instead of steep slopes descending to a riprap retaining wall at the water’s edge. In the small cove between the park and current National Grid property, the riverwalk design would allow a dock for boats and space where people could relax in front of the river.
“A lot of places around the world are making beach-style areas next to the water,” Evans said. “Why make it all performance lawn with no view of river?”
With the riverwalk, Evans is essentially calling for a return to original park plans that were scaled back to reduce costs.
He acknowledges that the riverwalk and cove dock redesign would cost more than current plans, but argues that maintaining the bridge height only adds the cost of tweaking the plans and should be done to leave open the riverwalk option in the future.
On giving boats greater clearance under the bridge, Evans said the change is not intended to help WaterFire boats, which are low enough to get through the bridge even at its current planned height.
Any potential conflict between boaters and the pedestrian bridge stem from the fact that the span was designed with the expectation that the entire river would be dredged and vessels would not have to rely on the existing channel along the west bank.
At its highest arch in the center of river, the planned pedestrian bridge would be 11.2 feet above the mean high-tide line, compared with 8.4 feet where the bridge crosses the western channel.
Clearance beneath the Point Street Bridge, which anyone reaching downtown from the lower river and Narragansett Bay need to pass, is only 9.4 feet. (Evans said that could be increased to 16 feet with additional work.) The next bridge to the south, the Crawford Street Bridge, has 8.9 feet of clearance and right after it the College Street Bridge has 8.2 feet.
With such a small difference between the height of the new bridge and bridges surrounding it, city and state officials say altering the design is not the answer to maximizing the use of the river.
“The solution to activate that area long term is a serious dredging program, which the city, state and Army Corps of Engineers would have to put a plan together for,” said Providence Director of Long Range Planning Bonnie Nickerson. “Tweaking the pedestrian bridge does not get you anywhere. Its clearance is similar to the other bridges.” The I-195 Commission’s Park Design Subcommittee at the end of October asked the R.I. Department of Transportation, which is managing construction of the bridge and parks, to investigate whether the park design could include better sightlines to the river and to make sure the current design does not foreclose on continuing the riverwalk in the future.
The panel did not request further information on redesigning the bridge.
Calls to state transportation department officials and to the Army Corps of Engineers were not immediately returned.
Evans said the last study of dredging was done in 2009, but, like the last 1998 dredging, only included a channel along the west bank and did not improve depths through the entire width of the waterway.
It estimated the cost at $5.6 million, but dredging the full waterway would likely cost far more than that, Evans said.
Once bustling with wharfs and merchant ships, the upper Providence River is now largely tranquil, aside from the gondolas and brazier resupply boats of WaterFire events.
When the city first embarked on the series of public-works projects that included moving and uncovering sections of the river, building Waterplace Park and relocating I-195, greater use of the waterway itself was a part of the vision.
As with most grand civic plans, limited resources have forced planners since then to prioritize and compromise.
If properly dredged, Evans said the river may allow return of water-taxi service to Newport, visiting recreational vessels from Narragansett Bay and the creation of a fleet of children’s sailboats in the 20 acres between Point Street and the new pedestrian bridge.
Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, said at this point the river’s lack of water at low tide can be a turnoff for visitors.
“I look at it daily and it does get a little unsightly at low tide,” Sheridan said. “Dredging would attract people who want to go kayaking or bring their personal watercraft. I do think there is opportunity to activate the riverfront in the city, whether that is from temporary retail outlets or new dining along the river.” •

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