The trestle at Boulevard Park will be replaced after Labor Day in order to make the walkway connecting the park with Taylor dock more accessible to the community. Along with the trestle renovations, the Department of Ecology will begin sampling the ground and water on the north side of the park this July for the contaminants left behind by the defunct South State Street Manufactured Gas Plant site.
After a two-year study of the structure, the City of Bellingham has determined the trestle needs to be replaced to better suit the public.
“There is not an immediate hazard to the public,” Project Engineer Gina Austin said. “The current trestle is not going to collapse [at any given moment] or anything.”
The project will involve tearing down the existing trestle in order to replace it. The removal of the trestle will block off the main thoroughfare between Boulevard and Taylor dock for several months in the fall while a new trestle is built.
The sampling of the ground and water for toxic contaminants by the Department of Ecology will also impact the park. The Department of Ecology expects there will be noise, trail interruptions and most likely some partial closures within the park for sampling.
Boulevard Park is one of the most popular parks in Bellingham, especially when the weather is nice. The new trestle should help more people enjoy both the park and the boardwalk by easing traffic between the two, Austin said. The testing may cause minor disruptions in the flow within the park itself as well, but in the long run it will make the land Boulevard Park is on safer.
New trestle to be more accessible, safe
Currently, the Pattle Point Trestle is perhaps the most traveled way in and out of Boulevard Park for people on foot or bicycle, Austin said. It spans 8 feet wide and two ways of traffic have to navigate it carefully.
“The trestle has been on borrowed time for a while now,” Austin said. Aside from the width issue, both the concrete abutments and the cross pilings are failing.
Plans posted on the City of Bellingham website show the difference between the old and new trestles.
The new trestle will be 4 feet wider, bringing the total width to 12 feet. The sitting nooks on the east side of the current trestle will be moved to the west side of the new one. The pilings will be replaced with new, stronger wooden pilings that will give the trestle more stability. The uneven wood boards that serve as the deck of the current trestle will be replaced with both a solid concrete deck and a grated deck. The grating will provide sunlight to the eelgrass in the water below the trestle, a major environmental factor that went into the planning of the project.
The new, wider trestle will also conform to the standards set by the Americans With Disabilities Act, allowing better access to those who use wheelchairs and lessening the stress of the two-way traffic by providing more space for bikers, walkers and joggers.
The sampling by the Department of Ecology is checking for chemicals, left over from the South State Street Manufactured Gas Plant, found in the early stages of their Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study, which studies what contaminants are at a site and need to be removed.
“Preliminary sampling turned up several chemicals, including petroleum hydrocarbons,” the agency said. These chemicals are derived from oil, which the State Street plant provided Bellingham homes with for cooking and heating. While they had practical benefits, they are also carcinogenic and potentially dangerous. “The term is coal gasification. It is the same type of contaminants that were found down at the site of Gasworks Park in Seattle.”
After finding these chemicals, the Department of Ecology decided they needed to be dealt with while they plan work for the waterfront redevelopment.
Work will impact everyday travels in park
Preliminary stages of the work will take place over the summer, but the trestle will not be closed until after the busy summer holiday season comes to a close on Labor Day. Once it closes, the route will be in accessible for four to six months depending on weather and working conditions, Austin said.
“Obviously it can’t be walked on,” she said. A detour has been planned for while the trestle is closed—people can walk up Bayview Road and down 10th Street to get to Taylor dock. “We want to encourage people to stay off the railroad. This [project] will have a huge impact on the people who use the park.”
The sampling by the Department of Ecology will only affect small portions of the park and vary by day, the agency said. The first samples are tentatively planned to take place in July, with more testing and sampling to follow in the future.
But one thing that needs to be asked is how these projects might affect business in the park, particularly at the Woods Coffee in Boulevard. According to one employee, it should not be too much.
“It’s hard to say,” barista Amanda Dubeau said with uncertainty. “We schedule based on the weather forecast—when the weather is nicer we have more business. It will probably impact all the walkers and joggers who come by in the mornings.”
But there are other ways into the park, and the projects appear to be happening one and then the other, with the sampling complete by the time the trestle closes, allowing Bellingham citizens to take full advantage of the park.
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