Call it the ultimate in recycling.
Come Wednesday, remnants of the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge will see a second use deep underneath Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay in the form of an artificial reef experts hope will help increase area marine life considerably.
Martin Gary, a fisheries ecologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said the state really lucked out when the bridge was blown up earlier this summer. Over the years, biologists have discovered that concrete is one of the better materials out there for the basis of a man-made reef — and the bridge certainly has a lot from which to draw.
To create the reef, crews will unload three huge barge loads of concrete at an established fish haven site off Point No Point in St. Mary’sCounty.
“The premise is similar to that of a coral reef, but in the Chesapeake the natural reef is an oyster reef,” Gary said. “The concrete provides a good attaching point for the oysters. Then once you have oysters, you get fish and crabs, and larger predatory fish start to use the structure to feed on the smaller fish. Literally, you can take an area where you could not see much of anything, and over time it’s almost equivalent to an oasis in the desert.”
Along with the increase in marine activity, the reef will enhance sport fishing opportunities for recreation enthusiasts, he added.
The last time any materials were placed deep in those waters was more than 20 years ago when two barges were sunk. The problem is that old bridges tend to be the primary source for artificial reef creation, and most such bridges are replaced in Baltimore, from where it would be costly to transport concrete.
“That’s why the Wilson Bridge is a great thing. It provides a unique opportunity that does not come along often,” Gary said.
But Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources does not want to stop at using only the center span of the bridge. According to Gary, he has been trying to get American Bridge Kraemer, the company that’s responsible for the bridge, to release the Maryland approach so that even more reefs can be added in.
“Right now we’re working on a small component,” he said. “But with the Maryland approach we could be talking about seven to eight times as much material.”
