Q River Seawall Finally Getting Fixed

It’s partially covered in deep snow now, but when the southern section of the seawall along the Quinnipiac River and its adjoining scenic walkway reappear in the springtime, there should be grounds for local celebration in Fair Haven.

That’s because after at least a dozen years of seriously delayed attention, the deteriorated sections along the southern portion of the seawall near the Brewery Square Apartments along the Q — including the pedestrian walkway, cracked as if an earthquake, or a triceratops, had struck — is in the process of being repaired.

Fair Haveners use the panoramic walkway to stroll, to fish, and to meditate. Soon, after a long wait, there will be that much more of that by the water.

According to City Engineer Giovanni Zinn the long-delayed repair, which launched in September, ​“consists of over-sheeting, that is, placing new steel sheets in front of the existing wall and installing structures to secure the new sheets.”

The walkway will be restored, as will the rip-rap. The sewer outflow pipe will also be extended as needed.

Total funding amount for the project is $940,047, all from a federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) disaster relief grant which was administered through the state’s Department of Housing and came to the city as part of a community development block grant, Zinn reported in an email.

As as early as back in 2008, this repair was discussed by the city’s planning and engineering offices as part of an overall plan to help avert flooding. That document, the federal Hazard Mitigation Plan, is required and must be updated periodically in order for New Haven to receive disaster relief money.

After super-storms Sandy and Irene, disasters did come to New Haven’s shores, relief funding followed. Those monies went elsewhere, and the Brewery Square seawall repair was several times put off.

That occurred despite the fact, as Zinn recalled, that the condition of the seawall significantly worsened after Irene and Sandy in 2011 and 2012.

For example, in 2013, $300,000 that had been set aside for the job was redirected to tend to flooding in the basement of the Middletown Avenue headquarters of the public works department.

One of the reasons offered was that the estimate for the work would cost a lot more, and the balance had not been applied for and granted. When the monies were in hand, for technical reasons a new draft agreement took a whole year to negotiate between the city and state.

Always the poor cousin of other projects, the southernmost section of the walkway was fenced to keep people out as the pavement began to seriously collapse.

That didn’t keep adventuresome fishermen and others from cutting a hole in the fence, and angling from the location.

When the agreement was complete, Zinn said, the bidding went out expeditiously and the work has proceeded, although its completion is weather dependent. He estimated the ribbon will be cut — if seawalls rate such a ceremony — in the late spring, most likely May.

The parcel of grassy land behind the seawall is owned by the city. It was quit-claimed to the city as part of a refinancing agreement in 2014 between the owners of the Brewery Square Apartments and the city.

The land, which has spectacular views of the river and Ferry Street Bridge, had originally been conceived of as the setting for Brewery Square townhouses.

Zinn said he is not aware of any plans to sell or develop the land that abuts the walkway and the seawall, which is ​“a coastal access amenity.”

“The city has no immediate plans for the property, and it will be maintained as open space for the time being,” confirmed Frank D’Amore, deputy director of city government’s anti-blight neighborhoods agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI). ​“In the event there is a development opportunity in the future, the city would initiate a process in consultation with the neighborhood.”