Middle Harbor Enhancement Area Technical Advisory Committee
About the Middle Harbor Enhancement Area Project
The Middle Harbor Enhancement Area (MHEA) is a restoration project associated with the Port of Oakland’s Vision 2000 Project and the USACE/Port - 50 Foot Deepening Project. The design was guided by the MHEA Construction Period and Long-term Monitoring, Maintenance, and Adaptive Management Program, known as the “3M Plan”. The primary purpose of the roughly 189-acre site was to create shallow subtidal habitat, with 15 acres of eelgrass beds, within a former naval harbor. The restoration project involved placing 5.5 million cubic yards of clean dredge material (enough to fill eight Levi Stadiums full of sediment) into a - 40-foot-deep naval harbor. While the subtidal habitat is functioning successfully and the first phase of eelgrass planting occurred in June 2019, several ancillary features, which were added to the MHEA design through community involvement and a technical advisory committee, have not yet met design goals. These features include a 3-5-acre educational marsh, an approximately 3-acre area of submerged land seaward of the beach, and 4,500 square feet of avian island roosting habitat. A complete history of the MHEA can be found at the following link: 2019 SERCAL Port Presentation (October 2019 Update)
Design Charrette
The Port of Oakland and the U.S. Army Corps organized a design charrette in 2019-2020 to create restoration designs for the public access beach, the educational marsh, and the avian roosting habitat. The charrette designers met with the MHEA Technical Advisory Committee in May 2020 to review the designs and received TAC approval for the preferred alternatives. The preliminary designs can be found at:
- 2021 MHEA Beach Enhancement Options Presentation
- 2020 SERCAL MHEA Presentation
- 2020 MHEA Cost Estimate Presentation
- Beach Enhancement Options Technical Memo
- Design Charette Alternatives Discussion Presentation
Public Engagement
In the second half of 2021, the Port of Oakland shared its design charrette results for the beach area with three West Oakland Neighborhood Councils (West Oakland Neighbors on August 19, 2021, Prescott Neighborhood Council on September 9, 2021, and Acorn/OAK Center Neighbors on October 7, 2021). The presentation described the two alternatives that were moved forward from the design charrette process, including the advantages and disadvantages of each. In addition to a presentation on the results, the Port provided a survey to gather feedback from the public. The presentation and survey results are posted below.
Middle Harbor Enhancement Area Beach: Beach Enhancement Alternatives Presentation
Middle Harbor Enhancement Area Beach: Beach Enhancement Alternatives Feedback Survey 2021 Results
Contact Information
Port of Oakland - Jan Novak [email protected] 510-627-1176
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Eric Jolliffe [email protected] 415-503-6869
