MAKING WESTPORT.

MAKING WESTPORT’S WATERFRONT LIVABLE

Construction has begun on the site of Westport, a proposed, $1.2 billion development along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River in south Baltimore. Work crews began carving up the 50-acre waterfront plot shortly after Christmas, but on Wednesday, backhoes and bulldozers hummed as workers from the Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. dumped tons of large, gray rocks into the shallows along the 900-foot section of shoreline.

This preliminary work is part of Westport developer Patrick Turner’s efforts to clean up the site by installing a natural “living shoreline” that will serve to filter out pollutants and improve the site visually. About 4,500 tons of riprap, or stone rubble, will extend the shoreline into the water and will be cut with a large section of sand, where Turner plans to plant wetland vegetation starting in April.

The site was once the location of the century-old Carr Lowrey glass manufacturing plant. A nearby BGE substation, which Turner demolished in 2008, added to the formerly industrial character of the site.

“Part of the mystery is that Carr Lowrey kept on pushing their [waste] out into the water. No one knows what’s muck and what’s solid,” said Karl Pletl, a construction manager for Whiting-Turner, which is heading the construction effort.

When done, the shoreline will have an environmental “cap” that will prevent pollution from debris floating in the harbor, while the new wetland area is meant to encourage the restoration of the Middle Branch’s ecosystem. The restoration effort was paid for with $620,500 in federal stimulus funds administered by the Maryland Department of the Environment. All of this fits in with Turner’s marketing plan for Westport as Baltimore’s new “green harbor.” The developer is seeking LEED-Platinum certification for the site, the highest green building standard offered by the U.S. Green Building Council, a trade group.

In February, Turner will begin infrastructure improvements on the Westport site, and in 2011 the Landex Co. is expected to begin building a luxury apartment building.

Westport, which is eventually slated to include about a dozen office and residential buildings and possibly a soccer arena, received approval for $160 million in city bond funds in 2008 to build public infrastructure such as roads and sewage systems. The project is expected to cost $1.2 billion upon completion, much of it financed by Washington-based private equity fund The Carlyle Group.