CRWA in the News

Square to go green -- and become city model

By Robert Preer, Globe correspondent

Boston Globe, Sunday, July 8, 2007

Peabody Square in Dorchester, next to the MBTA's Ashmont Station, is about as far from nature as it gets. Pavement covers the landscape. A tangle of buses, cars, trucks, pedestrians, and trains converge at the junction of Dorchester Avenue, Talbot Avenue, and Ashmont Street.

But sometime in the next few years, city officials hope, this patch of Dorchester will become a model for environmentally sensitive urban planning.

As part of a planned reconstruction of the square and reconfiguration of the traffic pattern, the city intends to have special permeable sidewalks, extra tree plantings, and wide pits to help trees absorb rainwater.

The main purpose of these measures is to reduce the flow of storm-water runoff, which can overtax the area's drainage and sewer systems and pollute the nearby Neponset River and Boston Harbor.

"The city is really looking at ways to be more innovative and environmentally sensitive," said James W. Hunt III, Boston's chief of environment and energy. "This is a municipal project that is on the forefront of the sustainability and environmental agenda."

Dan Larner, executive director of the city's Main Street program for Peabody Square, said, "We are looking at this as a way to reduce ground-water pollution and storm-water runoff. We also see it as a way to get people thinking more about the environment."

The special drainage measures are in the design phase now, funded with a $25,000 state environmental grant. Construction costs have not been determined but will be included in the city's long-range Peabody Square and Dorchester Avenue reconstruction plans.

Hunt said Mayor Thomas M. Menino's administration would like this project to be a model for future street and sidewalk projects across the city.

"It's a great place for a demonstration project because of the proximity to the MBTA station and the high volume of foot traffic," Hunt said.

The city has hired the Charles River Watershed Association to design the measures. Pallavi Mande, urban restoration specialist for the association, said the selection of Peabody Square for the demonstration project was deliberate.

"It definitely is one of the most challenging projects in terms of existing conditions," said Mande. "If it works there, it can work anywhere."

The special drainage measures planned for Peabody Square are fairly simple. Sidewalks can be made out of segmented and permeable materials that permit rainwater to seep into the ground. Expansive dirt pits around trees collect water that otherwise that would flow away into storm-water drains.

These measures have been implemented in a number of US cities, including Seattle and Portland, Ore., but are rare in the Northeast.

Storm-water runoff is typically very high in areas that are paved over, and the water can pick up pollutants from the street. In the Ashmont section of Dorchester, street drains empty into the Neponset River, near where it flows into Boston Harbor.

In suburban areas, runoff is often channeled into collection ponds. Mande said this isn't feasible in Dorchester.

"In an urban environment, we're relying on tree pit design and permeable pavement, things that can be done in an urban context," she said.

The city is planning a major reconstruction of Peabody Square, which is already getting a new look with two projects already underway, the rebuilding of the T's Ashmont stop and the construction of a large housing and retail building next to the Red Line subway station.

The Ashmont Station is to have a plaza in front, and the mixed-use building, now rising on the edge of Dorchester Avenue, is to have a bank, coffee shop, and restaurant on its ground floor.

The building is scheduled for completion early next year and the revamped train station, a year later.

The city's project for Peabody Square involves realigning Talbot Avenue and Ashmont Street at Dot Ave. so that they intersect at right angles instead of the odd configurations that exist now. Green spaces are planned as part of the project.

The city hopes to finish design of the Peabody Square project next spring and start construction later in the year.

Robert Preer can be reached at preer@globe.com.