Along the edge of the water, where Hundred Acre Cove meets Walker Farm, chunks of concrete and broken rubble mix with rocks and sea grass. 

There is a boat dock and a concrete boat ramp, and nearby is a large dirt parking lot that leads to the town’s composting site and public garden plots. 

Walker Farm, a town-owned piece of waterfront property, has not changed much over the years, but starting on Thursday, July 28, crews will begin a large construction project. The work is designed to improve the coastline, making the property more resilient to sea level rise. It will also include the installation of a new low-profile dock which will be handicap accessible. 

Barrington Town Planner Teresa Crean said the project has been years in the making. 

“I’m in my seventh month with the town. This started well before I came on,” she said. “The municipal resilience program that the state ran goes back to 2019 when Barrington had its workshop, and this was called out as a high priority. So it was prior to 2019, where the planning started happening for this.”

Crean said town officials and the contractor will do their best to keep the property open for public use during construction, but added that “it’s going to be limited.” She asked that anyone planning to use Walker Farm be considerate of the construction project and the workers on site. 

“We have to be realistic about getting the work done. And our construction schedule season is between now and the end of November,” she said.

Crean said the work schedule had originally called for the completion of the project by September, but there was a delay with an Army Corp of Engineers permit. She said the town was able to secure the permit, but decided to extend the project through November to accommodate that permitting delay. 

“The construction time frame is pretty quick,” she said. “July 28 is the official first day of construction. So we met with the East Bay Rowing Club to talk about the choreography that’s going to go into moving their vessels around the site. We’ll do weekly updates with the contractor and the East Bay Rowing Club to make sure that no boats are damaged and we can minimize any use conflicts. 

“We’re also reaching out to the community garden plot holders to make sure they’re aware of the construction schedule. And we’re still sorting out all of those details, but it’s still a phasing and we’ll have to do weekly updates with everyone to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Crean said officials will post Walker Farm construction updates to the town website periodically during the project.

What is planned

Last week, Crean stopped by Walker Farm and scanned the shoreline. 

The tide was high, lapping up against the mix of rocks and rip rap that line the shore. Crean has seen the water spill over onto the dirt roadway and grassy field at times, usually during moon high tides or storm events.

The town planner said the planned improvements will make Walker Farm more resilient to those tidal events.

“We want to make sure that when we get hit by the next big storm, if it’s a hurricane or a nor’easter, that this shoreline, which is more prone to erosion that it may have been in the past… that these spaces continue to be usable by the public,” she said. 

“We talk about resilience — it’s how quickly can we bounce back after a stress event or a hazard. We want to make sure that this coastline, this section of publicly accessible shoreline, has those measures in place to minimize the risk of loss and keep this open as a public asset.”

Crean said the first phase of the work will start toward the southern end of Walker Farm, near the existing boat ramp and dock. 

“This part of the dock is actually going to remain,” she said, pointing to the high-profile boat dock. “This was just re-done by our public works. There’s going to be a whole other dock structure attached to that, and we also have some interpretative signage that’s under development.”

Crean brought along a poster board that showed a birds-eye view of the project plans. She pointed out what the southern dock will look like, and what will follow that portion of the work. 

“Basically the contractor will start going up the coast towards this part of construction — building this dock structure and then doing shoreline stabilization work,” she said. “So, taking out all of the chunks of rubble material, old concrete, and restoring that shoreline with a living shoreline green infrastructure solution.”

Crean referenced the installation of a new, low-profile dock toward the northern edge of Walker Farm. That dock will include a special section that is handicap accessible.

“So this is all for the rowers,” she said, pointing to the main part of the planned dock. “But this structure on the end here is a roller structure for folks to be able to get into a kayak and roll into the water. And also you can access the water from this structure as well.. It’s just another way for folks to get boats in the water…”

Crean pointed to the line of trees at the northern edge of Walker Farm. “That stand of trees — (the work) will go up to that point. It’s the whole coastline. We will probably need to have a few trees removed to accommodate the shoreline stabilization work. But they’re going to do what they can to preserve any trees that are in good shape.”

The environmental group Save The Bay will work with town officials on the project. Crean said Save The Bay will help identify which trees are worth preserving and which ones will need to be removed. 

“And there’s a whole planting phase to this, after the fact,” Crean said, “for salt marsh plants and for salt tolerant woody vegetation.”

Crean pointed to a section of the grassy field at Walker Farm, and a low spot which tends to pool with salt water during storm and high tide events.

“This is a salt marsh migration corridor,” she said. “We want to mimic the natural evolution of a salt marsh because we’re seeing that currently, and what kind of plants would be in a salt marsh environment. Save the Bay is helping us with that.”

Crean said the work calls for portions of the grassy area to be built up.

“There will be sediment added to that, to build it up a little bit because that burnt out area does currently collect stormwater. There will be some earth work done to repair that grassy area so that the town residents can enjoy this wonderful waterfront property,” Crean said. “Part of the site will be planted to accommodate salt marsh migration because of rising seas and because of these moon tides and extreme high tides we’re seeing that are impacting the site.”

The hope, Crean said, is to build a better Walker Farm that will last far into the future so generations of people can enjoy the waterfront and have access to the cove and river. 

“The overall goal is to retain and maintain public use, celebrate this site as an asset for the town, for the boating community and also for shoreline access,” Crean said. “And we want to make sure that this open grass area is designed in a way that will be usable by the public.”