Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel: From Parking Lot to Channel Headwaters

摘要

The Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel project is part of a larger City of Seattle strategy for transforming an urban center's underutilized, auto-oriented office/retail area into a pedestrian-focused development with an emphasis of restoring a degraded surrounding environment. The project site was a 9-acre abandoned parking lot with a 60-inch underground drain pipe carrying base flow to Thornton Creek and conveying stormwater run-off from several commercial developments, city streets, and Interstate 5. Three separate issues were addressed by this project: Improving the stormwater quality to benefit downstream habitat; providing public open space and pedestrian connectivity to major transit hub; and, developing the project site in a way that promotes surrounding economic development.