Daylighting

Recent News: American eel—a tricky critter to accommodate in Yonkers Daylighting!
Who’d have thought that the American eel could reach 7 ½ miles up the Saw Mill River ABOVE the Woodlands Lake dam with everything it has to go through now—entering the river underneath the train station, swimming under Larkin Plaza for 1 mile in the dark, then up over a flow station, through concrete channels, and up a 20-foot dam! Studies completed by Robert Schmidt of Hudsonia for the Saw Mill River Coalition (a program of Groundwork Hudson Valley) in the spring of 2008 found the American eel—ABOVE THE DAM! These creatures slithered up vegetation to make beyond the dam.

The tricky part now for the eel with the Yonkers’ daylighting project, is to be sure that when engineers bring two new sections of river back to the daylight, their design will allow species of fish to make it upstream, and down again. This will impact the American eel, and other migratory species, possibly the alewife (herring). Coming down the river is as important as going upriver because the adult American eels, after about 5 years growing in tributaries, come back down river, into the Hudson and out to the Atlantic to swim to the Saragossa Sea to spawn. Ensuring a healthy eel population means being sure both routes—up and down—“work” when you re-engineer a new river path.

To that end, Groundwork Hudson Valley is working directly with the City of Yonkers, bringing fish expertise to the problem. As part of a New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program Grant, Groundwork Hudson Valley has a fish passage expert and a habitat consultant working directly with the engineers. One section of the river that will be exposed in Larkin Plaza will be turned into a public park, raising the concern of how to prevent “floatable” trash from coming through the park after a storm. A trash netting chamber is being designed, and the fish passage expert is working with the engineers to be sure the fish species in the tributary will be able to pass up and down, through and around the netting chamber and not be caught in it.

One exciting part of the river park design will be a fish ladder, called an Alaska steep-pass, that will be visible to the public as it assists the fish in making it up the slope in Larkin Plaza. This will be a terrific teaching opportunity in our new river park! The engineering plans should be set soon and the City is hoping to begin construction of this wonderful new park sometime in 2010! For additional information, please email: annmarie@groundworkhv.org.

History

In 1917, a subterranean flume was constructed in Yonkers beginning at “Chicken Island”—a municipal parking lot off Getty Square—with the final phase in Larkin Plaza completed in 1922, banishing the Saw Mill River from the light for a half-mile underneath Getty Square, North Broadway and Larkin Plaza. After going through the flume, the Saw Mill River empties unceremoniously into the Hudson River immediately north of the Yonkers Pier.

Putting a river underground can have devastating effects on local wildlife and plant life and also robs the community of public park space.

Daylighting Campaign

Groundwork led the way to make “daylighting” the Saw Mill River the cornerstone of downtown Yonkers’ revitalization. “Daylighting” means restoring a river that has been covered up with concrete due to past public works projects in urban areas. The Yonkers plan calls for reopening the river where it skirts Chicken Island and incorporating it into the designs for a proposed “Riverwalk” (as part of River Park Center), as well as opening the river as it runs through the Larkin Plaza parking lot. Check out the Struever Fidelco Cappelli website for the most recent design work: sfcyonkers.com.

Getting people interested in daylighting took many forms over the years, and even included tours for public officials and others of the river’s underground tunnels and culverts. That advocacy helped spark a $3.1 billion commitment from Struever-Fidelco-Capelli to build housing, offices and commercial space along the river’s path. And it led, with Scenic Hudson’s help in Albany, to $34 million dollars from the Pataki Administration just for daylighting.

Now Groundwork wants the daylighted river and accompanying downtown revitalization to be shared and enjoyed by everyone. We’re working with community groups on a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) to make sure that everyone benefits from the $3.1 billion investment. We’re also working closely with the city and developers on the look and feel of the riverscape, to insure that the park design benefits local biodiversity and provides public access to everyone.

Roundtables and charrette sessions have been held involving students, teachers, local officials, architects, and ecologists in incorporating cultural, historical, environmental, artistic, and recreational elements into the plan.

Groundwork Hudson Valley’s Rick Magder has been awarded a daylighting award from both the American Planners Association and the Beczak Environmental Education Center.

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