Goldman Allocates Seven-Figure Down Payment for Ten-Figure Resiliency Project
U.S. Congressman Dan Goldman has secured a federal appropriation of $1.9 million to advance design work on the Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan, which seeks to flood-proof the 0.9-mile stretch of East River shoreline between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Battery. (This project will connect at either end to the Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resilience project and the Battery Coastal Resilience project.)
The Financial District and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan is expected to cost between $5 and $7 billion, none of which had been allocated, until now. The $1.9 million earmarked by Mr. Goldman represents approximately 1/500th of one percent of this projected budget, but is nonetheless significant because it appears to the first allocation of money from Washington for a project that City and State officials are convinced can be built only if the federal government agrees to cover the majority of the cost.
“As climate change and extreme weather events continue to threaten New York City’s shorelines and coastal communities,” Mr. Goldman says, “it’s incumbent on all levels of government—local, state, and federal—to take the dual threats of climate change and extreme weather seriously, and this is only the beginning. We will protect the homes, businesses, and infrastructure on the frontlines of the climate crisis.”
In accepting the ceremonial check from Mr. Goldman at an event held in the Battery, Mayor Eric Adams said, “the FiDi-Seaport Climate Resilience Plan will help protect Lower Manhattan from the stronger storms that climate change is bringing.”
This $1.9-million allocation will fund the first phase of design for the planned anti-flood infrastructure. Estimated to take a minimum of 15 years to construct (with no start date yet announced), the FiDi-Seaport Master Plan focuses on “passive” flood defense, which translates into refashioning the landscape and elevating the riverbank, thus creating a physical barrier that will stop flood waters. The design contemplates building a network of decks, berms, and breakwaters that will extend into the East River between 90 and 200 feet. The outermost edge of this complex would rise to an elevation between three and five feet above the current waterline, while its landward side would reach as high as 15 feet.
The design seeks to offer two levels of flood protection: a lower elevation to address daily tidal flooding and an upper layer to hold back inundations from coastal storms. Landfill will be added close to the existing shoreline, creating new landscapes and waterfront public spaces, which will connect to a network of decks. In all, the plan will create approximately 14 acres of new land, along with four acres of new platforms.