Poplar Island is a remote Chesapeake Bay island that has a rich historic background. It has in the past acted as a hideout for bootleggers and a short-lived black cat farm.

It has also been used as a base camp for a fleet of British invaders, hosting British warships during the 1812 war, as well as a home to some communities. Poplar Island boasts of being a vacationing retreat center for prominent people, among them Presidents Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt.

The Poplar Nightmare

As you would expect of any coastal ocean frontage, Poplar Island experienced violent weather and fell victim to rapid erosion in the early 1900s.

It was adversely affected by fluctuating tides that caused rapid deterioration of this once-elegant Chesapeake Bay island.

Sooner rather than later, the extensive island of over 2,000 acres of wildlife habitat was reduced to just about 4 acres with scarce wildlife.

One could clearly see that Poplar Island was slowly approaching its sunset days due to the rapid washing away of the landmass and the reduction of the natural wildlife habitats.

However, before the Poplar light went off, restorative engineering solutions were provided to preserve its ecological legacy, thanks to MagnumStone retaining wall solutions.

The Restoration of Poplar Island

To save the situation, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Port Administration made a decision to restore Poplar Island using dredging materials from the shipping channels of the Chesapeake Bay and Port of Baltimore.

This was done in a bid to save the vital Chesapeake Bay island habitats and to counter the impact that the disappearance of the habitat had on wildlife, waterfowl, and birds.

The project, 1,140 acres big, saw the relocation of dredging sediments begin in 2001.

The sediments were used to construct marshes and wetlands which house shorebirds and waterfowls. Poplar Island now has over 35,000 ft (10.67 km) containment dikes constructed using sand and stones.

The Failure of the Big Block Gravity Wall System

The most recent Poplar Island project, dubbed Spillway 17 and Spillway 19, which was awarded to McLean Contracting Company, saw USACE consider a big block gravity wall system. They were to be used in a very sensitive part of the island where overhead access roads and large culverts were to be constructed.

To erect the roadways and support them above the two culverts, four big block gravity walls were needed (one retaining wall on either side of each culvert).

Part of the team that was brought together included Earth Retention Systems which is a wall engineering company and York Building Products who are MagnumStone wall manufacturers.

The big-block gravity wall system faced major hurdles at the engineering phase. The challenges included fluctuations in tidal water levels and soft soil which would not effectively hold the weight of the heavy solid walls.

The McLean-led team had no other choice but to overcome these challenges and still deliver the project to USACE's satisfaction.

Poplar Island Spillways with MagnumStone

Poplar Island needed a retaining wall system that was strong enough to satisfy the structural needs of the project and innovative enough to overcome the challenges of the solid big block wall system.

York Building Products quickly thought about MagnumStone’s retaining wall solutions.

Being an ecological haven, Poplar Island needed an environmentally sustainable retaining wall solution. MagnumStone offers eco-friendly big block wall systems with a hollow core design that uses 40% less concrete compared to solid concrete block walls.

Additionally, the precaster of York Building Products', Keystone Concrete Products, uses about 9% slag in their MagnumStone blocks. Slag is a waste product obtained when smelting ore.

Transporting MagnumStone blocks is relatively easier. With 40% less concrete, they are lighter and would therefore be transported to site using flatbed trucks as opposed to barges that would have been used to transport the solid blocks.

Fewer trips were to be made to transport the blocks, reducing the carbon footprint of the transportation machinery, which is good for the coastal Poplar area.

Smaller equipment and less labor were required during the transportation and construction phases of the project since the blocks were lightweight. The overall costs of the project went significantly down while the impact of the project on the shore of Chesapeake Bay was tremendously reduced.

A Unified Look and Design

The MagnumStone blocks used to build the four retaining walls blended seamlessly with the concrete culverts, providing an overall beautiful look and natural feel on the island.

The light-colored blocks used for Spillway 17 and Spillway 19 are celebrated by marine life. Just as the vacationing presidents once did, fish and turtles find it fulfilling passing through these smooth concrete culverts.

Conclusion

Regions bordering the ocean are often exposed to very harsh conditions. Conditions such as fluctuating tides are likely to cause severe erosion on the coastal ocean frontage, and just as was the case in Poplar Island, the landmass in such regions gets washed away and the land begins to deteriorate.

Thanks to eco-friendly MagnumStone retaining walls, Poplar Island was saved from what was seen as its end. It now boasts of over 1,000 acres of wildlife. Several species of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl now use it as a resting and nesting ground. Several species of fish, turtles, and insects can now proudly call Poplar Island home again.

With all these efforts put in to restore the island, Poplar Island serves as a good example of effective island restoration.

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