Piers Park Phase II on Track for 2023

At a Jeffries Point Neighborhood Association (JPNA) meeting last week, Massport’s Anthony Guerriero said the project is on track to be completed by the end of the 2023 calendar year.

“We’re still scheduled to open the park at the end of 2023,” said Guerriero. “We’re working very closely with the East BostonProject Advisory Committee (PierPAC). We started this process in 2017, PierPAC voted on a concept in 2019 and voted on that design in November of 2021. We’re going to be going out for bids in the late spring or early summer.”

Since 2017, Massport has collaborated with East Boston residents and PierPAC members on a design for Piers Phase Park II. At a community meeting in 2019 Massport officials and members of PierPAC narrowed down the design options for the new park to three and presented those options to residents.

Then in 2021 PierPAC narrowed the options down to one.

Massport has contracted Kleinfelder Northeast Prime as the park’s landscape architecture and Pressley Associates to work with Kleindfelder in incorporating climate resilience designs into the park to deal with future sea level rise. Piers Park II will be elevated to match the existing Piers Park and seamlessly extend the Harborwalk and connect the walking paths of both parks.

The new park will also have berms to prevent flooding along Marginal Street. Additional resilient and sustainable elements will be incorporated in the Park’s final design.

“We are building a park not for 2023 but for 2040,” said Guerriero of incorporating seas level rise mitigation into the design. “This design will address not only the needs of the neighborhood now but the needs of East Boston in the future.”

The $15 million construction project will transform the 4.5-acre waterfront park adjacent to the 11-acre Piers Park on Marginal Street into a recreational space that is conducive for multi-generational activities.

Under the plan, a 1.07-acre play area will be the centerpiece of Piers Park II. While Piers Park is a passive park, Piers Park II will be an active park that allows for multiple usage, including sports activities by more than one group at the same time. The oval-shaped field will be surrounded with new water features, a picnic grove, several exercise equipment geared for active seniors, and a children’s area with a playground structure and a wandering path with musical instruments.

A new 1,000 square foot building for Piers Park Sailing Center and public restrooms will also be built. At the meeting residents got a look of the Sailing Center’s new home for the first time.

“We’ve been getting some input from (PPSC Executive Director) Alex DeFronzo and his team to give them the space that they need,” said Guerriero. “Instead of the current trailer they operate out of this would be a permanent structure with a lot of windows so they can see out onto the docks and the harbor.”

Guerriero said the park would be secured, monitored and maintained by Massport just like the award winning Piers Park.

“Once we choose a contractor it should take about 18 to 20 months to complete,” said Guerriero. “We are going through the permitting process now in order to get that out of the way and be ready to go once bids come back.”

The park is one of several high impact mitigation projects identified by both the City of Boston and members of the Logan Impact Advisory Group (LIAG) through their review for both the Terminal E modernization and the future construction of 5,000 additional parking spaces at Boston Logan International Airport.

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