Governor George E. Pataki of New York State has long been an outdoor enthusiast and supporter of outdoor recreation. The Governor has carried his passion through to the public by facilitating the acquisitions and transfers of properties thus expanding and enhancing open space access for New Yorkers . One of his visions has been to greatly improve access to the Hudson River. On August 21, 2000 the Governor announced the transfer of a three-acre parcel, which had been utilized as a maintenance center by the NYS Department of Transportation (DOT) to the NYS Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation.

This waterfront property is located just north of the City of Peekskill, in the Town of Cortlandt, Westchester County, New York. The former DOT Bridge Maintenance Yard was to be transformed from a cluster of buildings and pavement, to a beautiful waterfront park, which would become part of Hudson Highlands State Park. The program goals of the new park would be to provide access to the Hudson River for car-top boat launching, fishing, picnicking, wildlife viewing, and also space for a community boathouse which would be utilized for outdoor environmental education, events, and storage of paddle craft. The community boathouse would also feature a direct connection to the Hudson River Valley Greenway Watertrail

New York Governor George Pataki had a vision to improve access to the Hudson River. He transferred a three-acre parcel of land that formerly was used as a maintenance yard for the New York State Department of Transportation. All asphalt was removed and paving was put down in the parking and access areas to the site.

The project had the goal of improving the appearance and lessening the environmental impacts on the site. All asphalt was to be removed from the site and an alternative paving was utilized in the access and parking areas. The amount of paved surface was greatly reduced and the green areas enlarged and improved with higher-grade soils. Buffer plantings and shade trees will be introduced to enhance the beauty of the park and to improve the quality of habitat.

The chosen design reshaped the landscape to allow for its intended programs and blend into its surroundings by mimicking them. The parking area (being like the river) and the surrounding landscape would rise and fall with mounds, similar to the Hudson Highland’s features. Providing a physical and visual separation from the parking, the mounds define the paths. The paths, which were designed for total accessibility, will lead to wooden fishing/viewing platforms overhanging the rip-rap shoreline of the river in three different locations. A floating dock will be aligned to the junction of the paths, a short carry from the parking area allowing the launching of paddlecraft. Benches and tables for picnicking and river watching are strategically located throughout the park. The small peninsula to the east end of the park will be left undeveloped to enable patrons to enjoy bird and wildlife watching.

In order to construct this design, several challenges had to be met. The property’s history was it’s first and most formidable. Prior to 1925, the property did not exist. Barges had been brought in and sunk to create a foundation for land, as in many places along the Hudson River. The barges were then filled and the land evolved over time as the DOT utilized the site while maintaining the region’s bridges. With the relatively unknown history of the base material, the DOT drilled test borings to insure the safety and quality of the soil on the property. Finding petroleum laced soils in initial tests, an environmental consultant was hired to assist in creating a remedial plan to mitigate the property of contaminants.

The demolition of the site began with the removal of two structures that had no adaptive re-use for recreational programming and the reclamation of asphalt that covered most of the property. Then the excavation, removal and replacement of approximately 2,515 tons of petroleum-laced material and a 1000-gallon fuel tank took place. Oxygen-releasing compounds (ORC) were introduced to the remaining soil to cause chemical oxidation of any residual contaminates. The environmental cleanup concluded with the installation of piezometers for post-remediation ground water monitoring and assessment of the remediation of the site. Given the positive results, the plans moved forward.

One existing barn was spared from demolition and given a cosmetic transformation to become more characteristic of other Hudson Valley working outbuildings. Architectural details such as eyebrow windows, a cupola, battens and a subtler tone of paint were added. The barn will eventually become a canoe and kayak rental business and the site of community involvement .

A barn, above, was kept on the site to show the characteristics of Hudson Valley outbuildings. One challenge of the design was the high water table and the grade which had been established by the road, right, the barn's floor elevation and the river which bordered the site on three sides.

The next major hurdle in design, was the exceptionally high water table and the grade which had been established by the abutting road, the existing barn’s floor elevation and the river which bordered the site on three sides. With an extremely flat site, the inability to construct standard drainage structures and no means of allowing any concentrated runoff to flow safely to prevent direct flow into the river, alternative engineering was required.

The immediate response was a compacted gravel access and parking area. The obvious problems associated with that design were that it required a minimum pitch to allow for drainage, frequent maintenance of the gravel and the lack of good ADA accessibility. The identification of these associated problems encouraged additional research and engineering energy, which resulted in a design, which utilized Ecolock, a permeable interlocking paving stone, which was produced by Unilock New York, Inc. The Ecolock stone shape was developed for heavy-duty applications and the projected traffic requirements of the project were in line with the heavy-duty nature of the Ecolock.

The concept of permeable interlocking paving stones was developed in Germany over 10 years ago and is now being widely accepted and utilized in North America. The system is designed to permit the intrusion of water directly into the aggregate base material below the permeable interlocking paving stones and either permit natural recharge of the water back into the water table or if a non-permeable sub-base exists, a controlled discharge into a collected water system. The aggregate base material gradations vary with different hydraulic requirements and are engineered according to site conditions and storm designs which are indigenous to an area. The 1 inch of typical graded ASTM C-33 bedding sand which is found beneath interlocking paving stones is replaced with a 1 inch layer of 2mm to 5 mm sharp angular stone. Permeable paving stones are designed with permeable voids that are formed into the actual paving stone shape (the Ecolock has 12 percent void openings) and these voids are filled with 2mm to 5 mm sharp angular stone to permit the water intrusion.

Selection of the Ecolock permeable paving stone for the access and parking area required peripheral curbing that included its own footing to create a perimeter of containment for the paved area. Due to the unorthodox shape of the parking design, it not having many tangent sections, machine formed in place concrete curbing was the logical economic solution. Once the curbing was in place, the permeable base material was installed and properly compacted according to Unilock’s specifications. A geotextile was installed to enhance rigidity and to prevent the finer gravel setting bed from migrating and clogging the filter system below. Finally the pavers were laid. Once the paving stones were compacted down into the bedding coarse, the drainage voids were filled with the specified gravel by sweeping and again vibrating. The design of the access and parking area is graded and pitched with a minimum degree to work within the sites tight parameters yet to allow for heavy storm accumulation to run off and exit at deliberate curb breaks should the system somehow become overburdened. The resulting product has the bearing capacity to handle the cars and buses expected to visit the park and is attractive and lessens the environmental impact on the site and it’s neighboring river estuary.

One challenge of the design was the high water table and the grade which had been established by the road, the barn's floor elevation and the river which bordered the site on three sides.

In keeping with Governor Pataki’s philosophy for creative greener solutions and providing for the program goals of the park, a Clivus Multrum composting toilet will be installed, matching the barn’s façade. The unit is self-contained which again was required due to the high water table and inability to create a septic field. The Clivus unit also requires no water source, has a solar powered fan for circulation and needs very little maintenance once established.

The installation of the floating dock system, which is designed such that a kayaker may launch and land dry, will be installed. Benches will be erected and integrated with the edging for the paths. The final landscape will be complete with the introduction of the native plant material. After a cooperative effort between the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the NYS DOT, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the Hudson River Valley Greenway, this project is nearing its ribbon cutting.

The park will be known as the Annsville Creek Paddlesport Center, Hudson Highlands State Park. The park will be the pinnacle of the Hudson River Greenway Water Trail, which is also in the development phase funded by a $1million state grant. The Hudson River Valley Greenway, the management entity for the Water Trail is working in cooperation with NYS Parks to develop the Water Trail. When fully established, the Water Trail will provide scores of public access points to the Hudson River from Albany, the Capital of New York State, to Manhattan in NYC. With the establishment of the Annsville Creek Paddlesports Center, New Yorkers and visitors to the region will soon have access to even greater recreational opportunities.

Project Manager and designer: Kenneth J. Allen, RLA - NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation

Ken is a registered Landscape Architect, and an avid Outdoorsman. He is Certified by the American Canoe Association as an Open Water-Coastal Kayaking Instructor and is a licensed NYS Guide. Ken is also an active volunteer member of the NYS Taconic Search and Rescue Team. He graduated from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University in 1994.