To help the Town of Braintree address water quality and flooding issues, Nitsch worked with them to identify and prioritize town-owned properties for potential green infrastructure sites to improve water quality within the impaired Weymouth-Weir River sub-watershed. Funded by a 604b Grant from Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), we provided stormwater planning and green infrastructure design services to develop conceptual designs for seven green infrastructure locations to achieve the goal of reducing pathogen loading.
One of these locations was Smith Beach, approximately 0.69 acres located on the north bank of the Weymouth Fore River that experiences occasional flooding issues and water quality issues due to bacteria. During the public outreach process, the proposed project to improve water quality and increase resilience to flooding along the beach received a great deal of support.
Nitsch prepared 25% design plans to reconstruct the existing Smith Beach parking lot with porous pavement and landscape islands, as well as a subsurface stormwater infiltration and treatment system. Sustainable features include installing porous pavement parking surfacing with a subsurface stone reservoir; collecting runoff from adjacent roads and treating, storing, and infiltrating it into a subsurface system; and creating a bioretention parking island.
After the town was awarded a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Action Grant, Nitsch advanced the design through 100% construction documents and provided environmental permitting for the site.
Key Collaborators
Owner: Town of Braintree
Environmental Engineer: LEC Environmental Consultants
