Arundel Rivers Federation has received a Coastal Resiliency Program grant from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to create a living shoreline to stabilize the Franklin Point peninsula to increase resiliency of Franklin Point State Park and nearby coastal communities of Franklin Manor and Columbia Beach.
The Coastal Resiliency Program funds projects that utilize natural and nature-based solutions to address climate-related events and impacts, such as erosion, flooding and storm surge, using the latest technologies to find effective and innovative ways to protect Maryland’s coastal communities, infrastructure and public resources.
The Gloucester, Va., firm of Coastal Design was selected in a competitive bidding process to design the project, which will protect about 1,100 linear feet of the eroding peninsula with a living shoreline. The site, which is exposed to a 100-mile fetch south-south east down the Chesapeake Bay, has been eroding by nearly four feet per year over the past decade. The project will demonstrate how restoration at a large scale can reduce community risk to erosion and inundation while enhancing environmental resiliency. Construction of the project is slated for 2020.
Local residents are invited to review the preliminary plans and discuss the project with the partners, including representatives of Arundel Rivers Federation, Maryland Park Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Coastal Design. The meeting will take place at the Deale Library on Tuesday, October 29th from 6pm to 8pm.
