By Jeffrey North
The Town of Belmont and the Belmont Conservation Commission congratulates Northeastern University Civil and Environmental Engineering graduates Samantha Kinnaly, Kate Engler, Annie Lamonte, and Emma Totsubo on the recent awards for their design of the main entrance and green infrastructure stormwater management at Belmont’s Rock Meadow conservation area. The project was developed during the spring 2020 capstone course under the supervision of Professor Annalis Onnis-Hayden of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department in partnership with the Belmont Conservation Commission. (See “New Rock Meadow Parking Plan Proposed,” Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, May/June 2020.)
Their project won first place in the Water Environmental Design division of the New England Water Environment Association Student Design Competition, and went on to place second in the International Water Environment Federation Student Design Competition, where the team competed against entries from 28 universities in five countries.
A plan for a new Rock Meadow parking lot and entrance paths by Evergreen Engineering. Graphic by Evergreen Engineering.
The team’s design provides a 117% increase in parking capacity, a vegetated filter strip to treat the stormwater runoff from the driveway, and a bioswale and rain garden for filtering the stormwater runoff from the parking lot. Detailed grading plans reduce the driveway slope and direct stormwater runoff to the green infrastructure for treatment and infiltration. The team developed the technical specifications for the green infrastructure features that were first proposed in the Rock Meadow Master Plan, another “gown and town” project completed by ecological design graduate students at The Conway School in 2018.
Jeffrey North is the ex-officio Belmont Conservation Commission representative on the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill.
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