New York’s Battery Park City Authority is advancing plans for one of several key resilience projects aimed at protecting lower Manhattan against flooding associated with anticipated sea level rise.
The authority recently awarded a contract for the progressive design-build North/West Battery Park City Resilience Project to a joint venture of Turner Construction Co. and E.E. Cruz & Co. Inc. with Arcadis, Bjarke Ingels Group, Scape Landscape Architecture and WSP. Construction is expected to start next year, it says.
The project covers an area along the Hudson River waterfront between the northwest end of Battery Park and a high point on Greenwich Street in Tribeca. Design is still underway, but preliminary plans call for about 8,000 linear ft of flood and seepage barriers, plus interior drainage improvements to protect a 92-acre area, the contractors said in a statement.
Drawing courtesy of BPCA
The authority says deployable floodgates are a likely barrier solution for the project. Most of the Battery Park City shoreline is at the furthest point allowed for the federal navigation channel in the Hudson River, so any construction into the river would be far more complex and costly, officials say.
Officials say they cannot yet share an expected cost for the project with design still underway.
Sea level rise presents “a serious threat” to the area, says Peter Glus, North American growth director at Arcadis and the firm’s lead design engineer on the project. During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, many parts of the Lower West Side were impacted by storm surge.
But the Battery Park City esplanade is also a busy area for commuters, tourists and residents who use its waterfront parks. Glus says the team holds weekly meetings with residents to get their feedback on design options. The goal is to make a project that provides benefits during storms and during other times, amplifying the area’s current uses and preserving its design aesthetic, he says.
“There’s been a robust engagement because the authority’s residents are very much cognizant that this project is going to be built on a …
