Bids for a project to revitalize the Charles Eliot Memorial and surrounding parkland near the Community Boating facility on the Charles River Esplanade are expected to open on March 20, according to Fritz Casselman, vice chair of The Esplanade Association (TEA).
“Completion of this project will benefit the entire community by restoring an amazing overlook along the Charles River,” Casselman wrote in e-mail to the Times. “Its long-term contribution to the Esplanade will be profound because it will enable the DCR and the Esplanade to develop best practices to apply to future landscaping projects.”
Through its Partnership Matching Funds Program, DCR is partnering with TEA to jointly underwrite the more than $540,000 cost of design and construction for the project, according to the state agency.
Its scope includes improving soil conditions, landscaping and installing a new layer of shrubbery around the site; restoring the granite marker and adding seating to the memorial; and reconstructing paths at the entry to the adjacent Community Boating facility, among other enhancements.
Interpretative elements are also planned to the tell the story of the Esplanade and Eliot, the celebrated landscape architect who helped establish the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston.
Construction is expected to take 180 days, and was previously scheduled to get underway on March 4 for completion in September, according to the last DCR correspondence on the matter dated Nov. 9, 2012.