South Wilmington Wetlands Park – Wilmington, DE | SumCo - Specialized Civil and Ecological Construction

South Wilmington Wetlands Park – Wilmington, DE

Tags: Ecosystem Restoration & Mitigation

This project involved the remediation of a 14 acre highly contaminated site, regrading and replacement with clean soils, and installation of boardwalks and trails. Planting included 4.7 acres of upland and wetland seeding/plugs, container trees and plants to create forested wetlands, emergent marshes, scrub shrub habitats and upland meadows. Restoration of this industrial site with Green Infrastructure creates a stormwater management facility to mitigate chronic flooding while creating a natural asset for the City of Wilmington.

Date of Completion:

Fall 2020

Project Partners:

Owner: City of Wilmington

Design Lead: Brightfields, Inc. and RK&K Architects

Starting with a state of the art remediation/cleanup at its largest contaminated site, the City transformed this brownfield into the South Wilmington Wetlands Park to provide recreational access, increased resilience and a new home for wildlife. Boardwalks, trails and thousands of plants await the public while five wetland habitats and two upland habitats, with repaired connectivity to the Christina River, create a wildlife sanctuary in the middle of a city. Now the river can flood into a 14 acre floodplain rather than the basements of this historic urban neighborhood.

Environmental Benefit

Environmental benefits abound on this project. First, contaminated lands are cleaned to allow safe access for the public at a new urban oasis. Second, as the tides circulate in and out, the multiple wetland habitats have already been colonized by a host of species—fish, turtles, insects and birds. The flood protection provided by newly installed infrastructure and newly planted wetlands improves stormwater management and relieves decades of flooding on the adjacent properties. 55,350 plants and 4.7 acres of seeding significantly improve air and water quality. Wilmington Wetlands Park is a great example of ecological restoration and resilience in an environemtnal justice context.