Memorial Stadium rubble built Maryland living shoreline, restoring 400ft of coast & 2 acres of wetlands

Restored living shoreline along the Chesapeake Bay. Source: Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center Tons of crushed concrete from Baltimore’s former Memorial Stadium are getting a second life as the foundation for a growing coastal ecosystem along the Chesapeake Bay. In 2002, environmental engineers placed thousands of cubic yards of clean stadium rubble along the shores of Queen Anne’s County to fight serious wave erosion. More than 20 years later, monitoring shows that the recycled stadium material has helped create two acres of healthy intertidal wetlands and restored more than 400 linear feet of shoreline. The project is part of a larger restoration effort led by the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Centre (CBEC) in Grasonville, working with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR).Turning sports history into coastal protectionMemorial Stadium was once home to Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and the National Football League’s Baltimore Colts before it was demolished in 2001. Instead of sending all the concrete and masonry from the stadium to landfills, state planners reused much of the material for coastal projects. Workers moved clean concrete pieces, with rebar an...