Tacony Creek Park - Stream Restoration - Contracted for $1.5 Million - Fall 2010
Very near the center of Philadelphia, Tacony Creek Park contains an urban stream fed by the surrounding metropolis. Over the years, erosion has reconfigured the banks and threatens to expose city owned underground infrastructure that passes in close proximity. The Philadelphia Water Department and the US Army Corps of Engineers designed a remedy and employed Ecological Restoration, Inc. to implement the work which consisted of regrading, installing 4,000 ton of large rock for bank stabilization and in-stream rock structures, concrete abutment demolition, and site restoration including over 12,000 plants. The 2,000 lf of creek grading, stone work and demolition, in tight working conditions, was completed in three weeks working 12 hours a day, 6 day a week, with the planting and site restoration activities the following two weeks.
Unique Requests
As part of our contract for the Tacony Creek project, several unusual items were listed. The first was that we were to remove all of the refuse that had collected along the banks and within the stream. This included items like shopping carts, cars, motorcycles and wagon wheels. A dumpster was brought on-site and loaded daily with materials able to be recycled.
It was also ERI's responsibility to demolish and remove a large concrete bridge abutment that bordered the stream at the upper end of the site. To accomplish this a hydraulic jackhammer was attached to an excavator and was used to methodically break the abutment up. This tedious task took several days to complete. The pieces of the abutment were then hauled away in ERI's articulating dump truck.
One of many vehicles removed from the site
Pile of metals for scrapping
Excavator carrying abandoned vehicle to dumpster for recycling
Bridge abutment being taken down using hydralic hammer
