Black’s Creek Boating Facility

Quincy Recreation Department

(Click images for enlarged view.)

This project will rehabilitate older facilities to provide enhanced access to the Merrymount Park waterfront, provide improved facilities for the Black’s Creek Boating Program, and reduce impacts from the existing facility on the environment of Black’s Creek, an estuary of Quincy Bay in Boston Harbor.

Existing facilities are old and in need of redevelopment. The pier is solid concrete extending from the upland, across the coastal bank and beach into the intertidal zone. Chain link fence extends across the coastal bank onto the beach. The picnic shelter, enclosed in chain link fence is in very poor condition

The project replaces the pier with a wood pile-supported pier and restores the damaged coastal bank and beach. It makes the fenced enclosure significantly smaller and pulls it back 15 feet further from the water’s edge, away from the top of the coastal bank. The project provides a new shelter, located outside the fenced enclosure to make it available to the public throughout the year. It also reduces the gravel parking area by almost 1,200 sf and plants native shore grasses in its place. There is a significant restoration of the natural shorefront area in addition to the control of erosion from the current gravel surfaces.