When students returned to campus in late August, there was a big change down at the waterfront behind the athletic center that overlooks the Thames River. Dean of Students Victor Arcelus has been on the front line of this project and says that it was a long time in the making ever since it was added to the College’s strategic plan in 2016. “Within the strategic plan, one piece of it was to leverage the natural assets of the campus and the region to advance the College’s priorities and another goal was to undertake the campus-wide master planning process so we did,” explains Dean Arcelus. “In the master planning process it was very clear that we wanted to really think intentionally about the waterfront. We’ve been a waterfront campus for over a hundred years, but haven’t really taken advantage of really being a waterfront campus”. With the efforts of Dean Arcelus and Director of Athletics Mo White, as well as tremendous support from donors, the majority of the renovations began over the summer. This included building a new road with sidewalks, new piers, solar lighting, and beautification landscaping with wildflowers.
The project started in March 2022, as a result of a vacated campus. During that period of time, the grounds team had the opportunity when their typical work on campus was pulled back to look at the athletics property. They spent a month taking down dead trees and invasive species, such as trees of heaven. “Once we did that, it really activated people’s creativity and enthusiasm about taking it further,” says Dean Arcelus. There were two parts of the project: first, replacing the roadway and second, capitalizing on the full use of the waterfront space and preventing further loss of property. “Looking at satellite images over the past thirty years, we lost 30 feet of property from erosion so we wanted to be able to stop that erosion,” says Dean Arcelus. In order to maximize the use of the whole space, a retaining wall and a sea wall was added. “This would enable us to flatten the whole space out, to have proper drainage and to have it be ADA accessible. This is the work that we had to do over the course of two years with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). It’s a very complex permitting process to do anything on the waterfront,” explains Dean Arcelus.
Dr. Sax, the Director of the Arboretum, commented that there was not enough communication between the department and the administrators once the renovations were underway. “We were engaged a handful of times kind of about the design phase in which we gave some feedback and at that time the scope of the project was just limited to the road,” says Dr. Sax. He explained that earlier in the summer once the project was underway, those involved with the construction started to identify other things that they wanted to get done, primarily removing and regrading slopes and vegetation. “We were not consulted on those types of questions- Victor and other folks tried hard after the fact to kind of come back and around because we were really concerned.” While this major renovation project at the waterfront provides a big opportunity for the College, there are questions about the environmental impacts of the Thames River. “Removing invasives is a net positive thing, we think that that’s good work to do, but we were concerned about runoff and tried to mitigate some other environmental questions and also kind of just proceeding with the plan that’s not going to have a long term view for it,” explains Dr. Sax, “they know how they want it to look, but there wasn’t a good process of thinking hard about how they were going to achieve that past just implementing the project with these changes and starting it.”
While the College has permits to build on the waterfront, there are some environmental concerns when it comes to building sea walls, a parallel concrete structure that protects inland areas against storm surges and erosion. To combat this, Dr. Maria Rosa, a marine biology professor at Connecticut College, is interested in creating a living shoreline at the waterfront through her research. “The idea is to restore the habitat that was taken away to minimize the potential impacts of having the docks and to create a healthy system that potentially also protects the docks from storm surge”. To do this, Dr. Rosa and her students have built reef balls to create an artificial reef which serves to attenuate the wave energy. As the waves slow down, it allows sediment deposition which further prevents erosion and for native marsh grass to be planted. When asked about if there is any environmental concern with this project, Dr. Rosa emphasized the long permit process through DEEP in order to get the project going. “Yes the concerns are valid, but I can assure you after going through the permitting process DEEP takes this very seriously and to get the permit to do that work at the waterfront has been over a year,” says Dr. Rosa. “In terms of the docks, what we are trying to do is to put together the structure with the reef balls as a living shoreline so instead of putting a hard structure that’s going to potentially degrade the habitat, we are actually adding more habitat that wasn’t there before.”
When asked about whether there were sustainable considerations going into the renovations, Dean Arcelus commented that “all of the lampposts going down to the waterfront are powered by wind and solar. The plans for the waterfront were all done in partnership with DEEP with the intent to not damage the living shoreline and to in fact find ways to develop a better living shoreline in the years to come.” Dean Arcelus also mentioned that the wood used for the piers was harvested in a sustainable manner.
From an athletics standpoint, White also emphasized the importance of the new upgrades for athletic teams down at the waterfront, which includes three new piers and docks. The north pier will be used for the sailing team which will allow our sailing teams to house their full fleet of 36 boats. “You know our sailing program is nationally ranked, and realizing that, the plan is that this waterfront investment will kind of solidify them in terms of a facility. Our facility definitely did not match their success. So it’ll be a source of pride for them and for us to be able to host.” The middle dock and pier will be for research and community recreation and access to the water- front and for Outdoor Recreation Club, then there’ll be a new garage down there that will house kayaks and all of their equipment.
The majority of the renovations are expected to be finished by the end of September, with some elements still being completed until October and even some in the early spring. When asked about what he is mostly looking forward to once the renovations are finished, Dean Arcelus mentioned watching the sunsets and sunrises at the waterfront. “I’m looking forward to having students enjoy the fact that we are a waterfront campus. It’s a beautiful place in the morning to watch the sunrise and a beautiful place in the evening to watch the moon rise”. Overall, the waterfront is a substantial new addition to the Connecticut College community.
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