Concrete Solutions

Last time, I explained that in the 1960s large amounts of concrete rubble had been dumped into the Udalls Cove Ravine, which is the steep, narrow valley that runs from Northern Boulevard and the Long Island Rail Road between Douglaston and Little Neck. 

The intention was to fill the entire ravine and then build houses on top. City maps showed the location of planned streets, and a sewer line was installed along much of the length of the ravine in anticipation of the houses to come. Inclusion of the ravine into Udalls Cove Park in 1978 permanently halted the development plans, but not until after more than six acres had already been filled.

During the 1990s, volunteers from the Udalls Cove Preservation Committee had painstakingly reforested the barren parcel of land bordering Northern Boulevard. In 2003, the committee undertook a larger task - removal of the large amount of concrete rubble on additional parcels to the north as well as the subsequent restoration of those parcels. 

The land in question lies to the east and north of the Douglaston Firehouse, near the intersection of 244th Street and 44th Avenue.  Multiple problems afflicted this area. The most obvious issue was the piles of concrete lying everywhere that inhibited the growth of native trees, both by blocking them from the fertile soil below and by leaching alkaline substances into the ground. 

Less obvious, but of equal concern, was the severe erosion of the steep ravine slope due to the torrents of water running downhill from Zion Episcopal Church towards Gabler’s Creek during every rainstorm. So much sand and silt had accumulated in the creek bed that the stream actually ran underground for hundreds of feet.

On November 8, 2003, a small army of preservation committee volunteers began the task of restoration. During the course of several weeks, they removed more than 100,000 pounds of broken concrete from the flatter portions of this area.

Ranging from the size of a tennis ball to the size of an engine block, the pieces of concrete covered more than an acre of ground. Some 20 volunteers, ranging in age from seven to 70 years and older, swarmed the area, extracting chunks of concrete from beneath tangles of ivy, which was the only vegetation that was able to grow there. 

The concrete pieces were carried by hand to collection piles, from which they were transferred into a small front-end loader owned by a preservation committee officer The loader then dropped the concrete into dumpsters provided by the city’s Parks Department. 

At one point, a large pile of concrete inaccessible to the motorized equipment was moved nearly 100 feet by means of a human chain, with workers handing the heavy chunks from person to person in an efficient, albeit exhausting, rhythm.        

This process worked well enough on areas that were reasonably level, but it was impossible for the human volunteers to move the larger chunks of concrete that prevailed on the steeper slopes. 

It was time for the preservation committee to move into a new phase of operations. In January 2006 - after nearly two years of planning and fundraising and with government permits in hand – a contractor hired by the committee brought in two large excavators and a procession of dump trucks.

In the course of two weeks, well over one million pounds of concrete was removed from the steep slope leading down to Gabler’s Creek, leaving behind a smooth surface of bare earth.

This was covered by a thick mulch of woodchips provided by the Parks Department and then dozens of native trees - some provided by Parks, some purchased by the preservation committee - were planted by volunteers. This first phase of the project cost the committee more than $20,000, but an even bigger job was to follow.