Bioengineering Group

Broad Meadows Marsh

At Broad Meadows Marsh in Quincy, MA, approximately 106 acres of tidal salt marsh habitat had been utilized as a dredging spoils disposal area at various times in the past. The Bioengineering Group was retained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the feasibility of various alternatives under Section 1135. The intent was to restore marshland in a manner that would improve local recreation resources, withstand storm surge and wave impact, and... More...

Cane Ridge - Least Tern Nesting Unit

The Cane Ridge Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is a 474-acre property adjacent to the 3,000-acre Gibson Lake, an artificial cooling pond in Indiana. The Interior Least Tern is a migratory species that nests in shallow depressions on open sandy or gravel substrates naturally found in the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes Region. Due to the flood control and navigation efforts of the Corps of Engineers, these landforms have become increasingly... More...

Charles River Park

The Army Research Laboratory – Watertown (ARL-WT) was used as a munitions testing, manufacturing, and storage site from 1816 until 1995. In 1994, it was placed on the EPA Superfund National Priority List, with the Record of Decision calling for the remediation of soil and groundwater including organic and radioactive contaminants. The site encompasses a popular urban park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead as part of the Boston area’s Emerald... More...

Hearthstone Quarry Brook

Due to heavy stormwater runoff from its urban surroundings, the Hearthstone Quarry Brook in Chicopee, MA suffered from severe erosion and channel incision. The brook runs through dense residential area and receives stormwater runoff from area roads, highways, homes, and parking lots. When a planned road expansion caused even more stormwater flow to the brook, the City of Chicopee recognized that this additional flow would aggravate the existing... More...

Herrick Hollow Creek

The Bioengineering Group was retained by Amphenol Corporation to develop design measures to restore Herrick Hollow Creek at the Richardson Hill Road Landfill Superfund Site. Herrick Hollow Creek eventually discharges via Trout Creek to the West Branch of the Delaware River and the Cannonsville Reservoir operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). Previous stream restoration measures designed by... More...

Hop River

The Hop River is an important coldwater fishery and habitat to the wild brown trout, Salmo trutta. However, straightening and shortening of the channel two decades earlier in order to accommodate a state highway had triggered stream instability. Erosion was undercutting banks and increasing downstream sediment loading which in turn was smothering vital macro-invertebrate habitat and fish spawning grounds with fine silts. In a novel partnership, the Connecticut... More...

Manhan River

Riverbank erosion threatened to expose a regional main natural gas pipeline at a bend of the Manhan River in western Massachusetts. This constituted a potential emergency which needed an immediate solution; however, because of the presence of five endangered species, regulators denied the initial proposal for rock armor and required an ecologically sensitive treatment. The Bioengineering Group developed a bank restoration and stabilization design, using... More...

Mill Creek

The Bioengineering Group was requested by the City of Cincinnati, Office of Environmental Management to identify a cost-effective, environmentally sensitive bank stabilization plan for a portion of Mill Creek to halt erosion threatening to uncover waste materials contained in the Center Hill Landfill. The eroding bank was approximately 27 feet high and 600 feet long with clay strata overlain by highly permeable, loosely compacted sandy and gravelly soils mixed ... More...

Neponset River

The objective of the proposed project was to assess options for restoring fish passage, aquatic habitat and riparian habitat upstream of the Baker and T&H Dams on the Neponset River, located in Milton and Boston, Massachusetts. Although in the Algonquian Indian language, Neponset means the "Harvest River", referring to the exceptionally rich stock of shellfish and finfish in the river's estuarine and upstream reaches, the Neponset River has been... More...

New Bedford Harbor Salt Marsh

New Bedford Harbor supports a large saltmarsh complex ringed by dense urban and industrial development. In 1983 New Bedford Harbor and some adjacent upland areas were added to the Superfund National Priorities List, and a Record of Decision adopted in 1998 directed its cleanup by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, implemented by the US Army Corps of Engineers. In this cleanup, sediments were dredged or excavated from over 66 acres... More...

Pope Branch

The Pope Branch and Fort Dupont Creek tributaries of the Anacostia River in socio-economically challenged Northwest Washington, DC are heavily degraded urban streams partially buried in culverts. Urban development has caused substantial incision and habitat loss in the streams owing to flashy hydrology, deferred sewer maintenance, and contaminated storm water. Specific project objectives included daylighting the culverted streams and providing fish... More...

Pope John Paul II Park

The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) planned to create a new 72-acre park at the mouth of the Neponset River on a former landfill site, establishing a major urban park as the cornerstone of the river and waterfront greenway system connecting greater Boston with the Neponset River Estuary. The Bioengineering Group was retained as a consultant to advise the park design team through study of shoreline and vegetation processes... More...

Schoharie Creek

Schoharie Creek flows from the foot of Indian Head in the Catskill Mountains of New York and is twice impounded north of the Town of Prattsville to create New York City’s Schoharie Reservoir, and the New York Power Authority’s Blenheim-Gilboa Pumped Storage Power Project. During some winter storms, high stream flow and high reservoir levels cause a backwater area within the Schoharie Creek, frequently causing ice jams to develop below the... More...

Shelby Bottoms

The Shelby Bottoms Greenway and Nature Park is one of the true jewels of Nashville’s Park and Greenway system. This 810-acre park offers 5 miles of paved multi-use trails and another 5 miles of primitive hiking trails. The area is well known as a haven for migrating birds and other wildlife. Along the trails, visitors can enjoy boardwalks, scenic overlooks, interpretive stations and seven rustic bridges. In many locations, however, park trails and existing or planned structures, such as observation decks, were jeopardized by severe... More...