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| Audubon Society Boardwalk |
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Caputo and Wick Ltd. assisted the Audubon Society of RI and their designers, Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfelds Architects, with the planning, site design, and permitting of the Environmental Education Center (EEC) in Bristol, RI. The land parcel on which the EEC is located extends from Route 114 westerly to the shoreline of Narragansett Bay and contains an exemplary transition through a number of habitat types ranging from uplands, forested freshwater wetlands, brackish tidal wetlands, and beachfront. To complement the EEC and encourage outdoor participation, ASRI and Caputo and Wick Ltd. worked together to develop ADA-compliant trails and an extensive pedestrian boardwalk that would allow the various habitat types to be visited and to be used in a sensitive manner for outdoor educational classrooms. Our services included alignment selection, floral and faunal inventory, wetland delineation, topographic and property surveys, project design, structural engineering, environmental permitting through RIDEM, CRMC, and USACE, and construction administration. The boardwalk is a 1,620 linear-foot, 8-foot wide, elevated timber structure with curbing and guiderail, and it was constructed from deck level by York Bridge Concepts with no equipment in contact with wetland substrates. Its centerline was carefully positioned to provide viewing opportunities of key habitat types, unique trees, and a glacial erratic, yet it purposely remained distant from sensitive habitat areas such as brackish pannes and pools. The boardwalk contains a side spur and low-profile deck at the edge of a shaded vernal pool to provide an outdoor classroom area, an overlook of the saltmarsh, and a terminus platform that provides panoramic views of the Bay. The boardwalk intersects the East Bay Bike Path, so considerable coordination occurred with RIDEM's Division of Parks and Recreation, and significant effort was devoted to an intersection design that would avoid cyclist/pedestrian conflicts. In April 2008, a large fire swept through the saltmarsh and destroyed and damaged significant sections of the boardwalk. Caputo and Wick Ltd. additionally completed the design, permitting, and construction coordination of the 2008 fire-damage rebuild of affected boardwalk sections.
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