­­For Immediate Release: April 11, 2022

The public is invited to attend a Community Pre-Construction Meeting about the upcoming project to place the Robinson Landing Site historic ship timbers in Ben Brenman Park Pond. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 19, 5:30 p.m. at Ben Brenman Park at the maintenance access point on the pond along Deer Run Court. Residents and park users are invited to meet the contractor from AECOM, an engineering and archaeology firm, who will carry out the work. City of Alexandria staff from the Department of Project Implementation and the Office of Historic Alexandria will also be present at the meeting to provide information and answer questions. Field work at Ben Brenman Park is anticipated to occur from May 2-27, 2022. In the event of severe weather, the meeting will be canceled.

In 2018, archaeologists uncovered the remains of three wooden ship hulls at the Robinson Landing construction site. Once excavated, City archaeologists temporarily stored the ship timbers in tanks of water to keep the wood from decaying. These timbers will be moved to Ben Brenman Park Pond. This medium-term storage solution will continue to preserve the wood and allow future study and conservation.

Visit the Robinson Landing South Update: Historic Ship Stabilization Project website for more information about the ship stabilization project.

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact eleanor.breen@alexandriava.gov or call 703.746.4399, Virginia Relay 711.

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This news release is available at alexandriava.gov/go/3543.