New York City Begins $1.5B Project to Protect Manhattan from Floods

New York City has embarked on a $1.45 billion resiliency project in lower Manhattan along the East River, an area devastated by flooding in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The city’s East Side Coastal Resiliency project, funded by federal, state and local sources, will elevate park land stretching 2.4 miles along Manhattan’s east side from Montgomery Street in the Lower East Side north to East 24th Street, where about 110,000 New Yorkers live. The project has been in the works, with planning and community hearings, for more than eight years.

When it’s done, there will be new elevated parks and playgrounds, with flood protections built in with berms and vegetation. The 2012 storm resulted in power outages for days, and billions of dollars worth of flood damage and economic losses.

“I remember the uncertainty of that time and the fear some people had,” de Blasio said. “We can’t forget it. We have learned from experience that we have to get ahead of this challenge and protect us now.”