We are closer to the finish line!

Project Description:

The Malden River Works Park will transform the eastern third of Malden’s Department of Public Works Yard into a climate-resilient public park on the Malden River. It will be the first City park co-created with Malden’s environmental justice communities, and will dramatically enhance the resilience of Malden’s DPW Yard. Malden’s DPW Yard is one of the only municipally owned properties on the Malden River, and it currently experiences serious stormwater flooding which can leave the yard underwater for days at a time. By 2050 when seawater begins to overtop the Amelia Earhart Dam on the Mystic River, the DPW Yard will experience tidal flooding twice daily.

The City of Malden, in partnership with a Steering Committee made up of residents of Malden’s environmental justice communities and MIT’s Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, has been working since 2019 on a plan to create equitable access to the Malden River while retaining the property’s current industrial use. The final design includes a multiuse path, flexible lawn area, and floating dock for both crew teams and community boating use, and new drainage and stormwater management infrastructure in the DPW Yard to clean the water from the DPW before it flows into the river.

This project has been driven by EJ community members and is part of Malden’s larger commitment to addressing decades of environmental racism. A majority BIPOC resident Steering Committee has led community engagement and made decisions about the final design of the park since the project’s inception in 2019. More than 1,500 residents have engaged with the project in seven languages to shape its final design.