Seattle’s new Waterfront Park development — a decade and a half and $800 million in the making — includes a rebuilt seawall. It works to reconnect the city to the glittering water of Puget Sound. Baby salmon can be seen swimming past, shining silver glitter amid waving fronds of bull kelp. Right overhead, people walk over glass blocks set in the concrete of the seawall to allow light to pass into the waters of Elliott Bay.
The $330 million replacement seawall was completed in 2017 and has helped accommodate salmon and other aquatic life. Glass blocks and grating in the seawall are a way to be a bit more fish-friendly. Shallowing up the bottom and adding complexity and unevenness to the seawall also provides a place for sea life to grow, rest and feed. It’s a step up, ecologically, from the deep, dark, concrete wall that used to be there, said Jason Toft, principal research scientist at the Wetland Ecosystem Team at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. Researchers from this team have been instrumental in the restoration work and continued monitoring since the new seawall.
*Original story by Lynda V. Mapes for the Seattle Times.
