Daylighting

The Saw Mill River is coming back to the light of day in downtown Yonkers’ Larkin Plaza. The “daylighting” river project broke ground in December, 2010. During the early months of construction, underground utility work was being done-moving and re-establishing thousands of cables and pipes-to get ready for construction.

The centerpiece of the entire project is the re-creation of a new natural river that will flow parallel to the existing underground Army Corps’ flume—which now carries the underground river. The existing flume will serve as an overflow channel to protect the integrity of the new park (and the downtown) from floods. Normal river flows will go through the ecological park. When the water flows reach a certain level from rains, the flood waters will “overflow” down the existing flume into the Hudson.

Stop by the construction site today and you will see the walls of the intercept chamber (where the river will first come into the daylight) and the confluence chamber (where the river will re-connect with the flume). In addition, some curves of the old concrete flume from 1917 are now exposed.

When completed, we will have recreated 13,775 square-feet of aquatic habitat, including a tidal pool and two freshwater pools. Plantings along the bank and in the river bed will include species that will  attract beneficial insect species which will feed the American Eels and Hudson River fish. An Alaskan steep fish-pass and rock structures (riffles) will help the fish migrate up the Saw Mill. The site has great teaching potential for visitors. Informational exhibits will highlight breeding habitat, nutrient recycling, and the nature of estuaries. Project schedule anticipates the first water to flow through the new river bed in December 2011!

Groundwork Hudson Valley has been a city partner for over a decade on this project, thanks in part to an early grant from the Hudson River Foundation, which funded the first stakeholder charrettes about the project. Groundwork continued to receive other state and federal grants to work on other elements of the daylighting including habitat planning, park elements, park programming, and ecological education.

Click here to download the most recent park design.

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