July, 2009: Construction of the boardwalk portion of the Harborwalk was delayed by a number of months due to the late delivery of the FSC-certified timber, but the boardwalk as well as the connection with Cashman Park are being completed this summer of 2009.  Fencing and plantings along the Harborwalk connection at the Rail Trail corridor will wait till the fall as the state’s Rail Trail contractor finishes up.  The City Council has also just passed the first reading of a Harborwalk use regulation ordinance.

In addition, the City has actively petitioned the state for years to maintain the deteriorating Route 1 Gillis Bridge, and the state is now contracting with a new contractor to clean and recoat the steel of the Route 1 Gillis Bridge.  By contract, the Harborwalk underpass portion of the bridge on the Newburyport side is supposed to be completed first in 2009.

The City of Newburyport is fundamentally defined by its relation to the Merrimack River waterfront.  A long-term City goal has been to significantly expand public access to and along the shoreline by connecting the existing Peter J. Matthews Boardwalk and Market Landing Park at the central waterfront with Cashman Park to the west and Joppa Park to the east.  The Newburyport Waterfront Strategic Plan advocated for a high priority Harborwalk Extension project, noting that no other improvement would have “as large an impact on how people view and use the waterfront.” 

The City hired marine engineer Vine Associates, Inc. at the end of 2006 to design the 450-foot Harborwalk Extension project, which consists primarily of an 8-foot wide, pile-supported, timber boardwalk through the intertidal zone in front of the Rivers Edge Condominiums and the Rivers Edge Marina.  In order to connect directly with the existing shoreline pathway at Cashman Park, the project also includes reconfiguring the end of the cul-de-sac Riverfront Road (an extension of Pop Crowley Way) at the eastern end of the park, reducing the extent of impervious asphalt surfaces and installing a planting area.  The project will also repair a damaged drain line.

Project Plans (Construction Sheets 1-4)

Existing conditions have made public access along the riverfront in this area next to impossible due to the physical barriers of Riverfront Road, the Rivers Edge Condominium complex (which is built up to the edge of the intertidal zone), the pier of the Rivers Edge Marina, plus the 18-foot high old railroad embankment and the Route 1 bridge.  The City has worked cooperatively with the Rivers Edge Condominium Association and the Rivers Edge Marina to negotiate legal access for the public and the right to construct a boardwalk, executing a Memorandum of Agreement and temporary and permanent trail easements.  The parallel Clipper City Rail Trail project is addressing the railroad embankment and bridge underpass.

The boardwalk is being built during the off-season in order to avoid seasonal marina operations, anadromous fish runs and growing salt marsh.  This “linchpin” piece of infrastructure will connect Cashman Park and its existing 1,700 linear feet of shoreline trail with the one-mile Clipper City Rail Trail, the Waterside West district and eventually the downtown’s central waterfront and beyond. 

In addition, the City anticipates upgrading the Route 1 bridge underpass by installing high quality, large format (36”x48”), reproductions of evocative old photographs of the Newburyport waterfront’s maritime use. Public sculpture will also improve the overlooks.

Funding for the design and construction of the Harborwalk Extension project has been provided by the Massachusetts Seaport Advisory Council through the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Waterways Division, as well as the state’s Recreational Grants Program, and the Community Preservation Act (CPA).  Implementation of the Harborwalk Extension will expand the four-town regional Coastal Trails Network, and advance the statewide priority of building a Merrimack River Rail Trail at the intersection cross-roads of the Border to Boston Trail.

Future Harborwalk Extensions include: the area of the “Waterside West District” owned by Steven Karp and his partners; and the old City Branch rail corridor along the waterfront to the east of the central waterfront.  Once completed, the City will have an approximately 1.5 mile Harborwalk with the central waterfront and downtown in the middle.  (Further extensions to the east beyond Joppa Park, and to the west beyond the old Towle building, will be even more difficult than these sections due to the existing development pattern and terrain…but nothing is impossible.)