RAILS-TO-TRAILS CONSERVANCY IS IN THE PROCESS OF CONNECTING EXISTING TRAILS IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND TO MAKE AN APPROXIMATELY 30 MILE LOOP AROUND THE CITY. THIS BOOK CONTAINS STUDIES OF THE EAST PORTION OF THE PROPOSED TRAIL.
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BALTIMORE GREENWAY TRAIL NETWORK PLANNING OF THE PROJECT SUMMARY DECEMBER 2016
EAST BALTIMORE TRAIL SEGMENT CITY OF BALTIMORE
The fourth year students of Louisiana State University’s Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture visited Baltimore in August of 2016. After working with Jim Brown of Rails-to-Trails, the students returned to school to spend the semester researching and developing design solutions for the Eastern leg of the proposed Baltimore Greenway Trail Network. The students worked in groups for the first half of the semester to conduct the inventory and analysis phases of the project. Four teams were formed and this book is divided into sections based on those teams. Over the remainder of the semester, the students split up to individually address specific sites along the trail. The students aimed to fulfill the mission of Rails-to-Trails to “bringing public agencies, nonprofit organizations, private firms and the health care community together to help connect Baltimore’s existing trails and create new safe avenues for non-motorized travel around the city” with the tools of landscape architecture.
PREPARED FOR Jim Brown Rails to Trails Conservancy Trail Development Manager jim@railstotrails.org www.railstotrails.org
PREPARED BY Fourth Year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Candidates LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture Professor Dr. Austin Allen austina@lsu.edu www.design.lsu.edu/landscape-architecture
PREFACE
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1”= 1000’ |
INVENTORY AND ANALYSIS
THE FLYWAY | MARLON WHITE, HAGAN DOYLE, BENTON WILLIAMS, DELANEY McGUINNESS | 5
CONCEPT This electrical corridor is a right-of-way (R.O.W.) owned by Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE.) It is the best path from The Flyway to Herring Run Trail, an existing nature trail to the North. Electrical corridors, however, have many clearance restrictions for safety reasons. To make room for a trail without widening the R.O.W., The electrical towers can be condensed into one per stretch rather than a pair of towers. This will reduced the number of towers as well as allow an opportunity to reposition them in safer places throughout the corridor, for example not in the middle of a wetland. These towers can also become sculpture pieces to detract from their aesthetic or lack thereof. The top portion of the towers will take the shape of a Baltimore oriole. The structures will be lit accordingly. The horizontal wingspan can hold all of the wires at the correct clearances. [See rendering at right.] Design elements are expanded upon on the following page.
EXISTING
EXISTING |
BALTIMORE GAS AND ELECTRIC RIGHT OF WAY
PROPOSED THE FLYWAY
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DELANEY McGUINNESS | 7
EXISTING NATURE TRAIL WETLAND ACTIVE QUARRY ELECTRICAL TOWERS MAINTENANCE TRAIL
PROPOSED
ORIOLE ELECTRICAL TOWERS TTTThe polygonal shape of a baltimore oriole will be the top half of the electrical tower. The wingspan is able to accomodate all 12 wires at the required distances, so there need only be 9 towers instead of 18.
ACCESSIBLE FLYWAY TRAIL Condensing the towers will make enough space for a flyway easement within the ROW.
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BALTIMORE GAS AND ELECTRIC RIGHT OF WAY
PAVING MATERIAL “Rubberway Softwalk™ is designed to offer pedestrians and joggers a low-impact, good traction, firm but resilient surface. [It] is a pervious, patented, two layer system which utilizes recycled tires to create an environmentally friendly facility for the entire community to enjoy. The poured, seamless system...is resilient, non-slip, and easy on the joints yet firm enough to be suitable for strollers, wheel chairs, skateboards, bicycles, and roller-blades. Rubberway Softwalk has been installed as walking and jogging paths in parks and as training tracks for schools and federal facilities.” [www. rubberway.com] It has the potential to earn up to 13 LEED points.
1” = 30’
PLANT MATERIALS The electrical towers require serious restrictions on surrounding plant material. Only low maintenance, low in height plants can be near the towers. An opportunity remains: to plant native grasses and wildflowers that align with the goals of The Flyway to create habitat for birds and other wildlife.
EDUCATIONAL SIGNAGE This signage, designed by the firm Heine Jones for Mount Stirling in the Victorian Alps (Australia,) is a great example of a very minimalist and low impact design that could be implemented along the flyway to teach trail users about the ecology and history of the site.
1” = 30’
THE FLYWAY
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DELANEY McGUINNESS | 9