June 1, 2010
By Thor Jourgensen/The Daily Item
City leaders hope plans for a revitalized waterfront can include dredging work aimed at making it easier for vessels to sail in and out of Lynn Harbor.
They want the Army Corps of Engineers to weigh the feasibility of dredging an existing 3,600 foot harbor channel to connect the Lynn Harbor channel with one providing Saugus River access.
"The dredging would allow commercial and pleasure boats streamlined access to open water, while more importantly setting the stage for increased marine activity," stated a request form outlining the dredging project.
If the project is approved, federal tax dollars would pay for special floating equipment and crews to create a channel path by pulling silt out of the water. Before the work is approved, the city must conduct a feasibility study, estimated to cost $250,000.
The dredging plan is just a small part of a $1.65 billion plan for transforming the city's 305-acre waterfront running from the Saugus River to the Nahant Rotary into developed land.
The plan includes work, now underway, to relocate power lines and transmission towers. It also involves eventual alternations to the Lynnway near North Shore Community College and Heritage State Park.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy highlighted the waterfront's reuse in her January inaugural speech and in March proposed gradually shifting the waterfront's predominantly industrial focus inland several blocks.
She said the effort could take years, even decades, and said city officials could work with General Electric to determine if land owned by the aircraft engine manufacturer could eventually be used as sites for businesses relocating across the Lynnway.
Plans for the waterfront include building residences as well as siting hotels, offices and light industry between the Lynnway and the harbor. Forty-five waterfront acres designated for marine-dependent use would be served by the dredged channel and a Lynn to Boston ferry has been proposed to serve the waterfront.
A boardwalk and park areas are also included in the waterfront plan.
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