![]() To preserve a modicum of public access, the floodwalls and levees would have numerous pedestrian and vehicular gates, some crossing major highways, cutting off even emergency traffic for many hours during a storm. The Corps has suggested that the positions for some walls could shift as the project moves forward, but hasn’t yet indicated what those changes would be. Or strolling along Jersey City’s pleasant waterfront esplanade without cool breezes from the harbor. Or straining to see the United Nations through occasional gaps in a 12-foot-high floodwall at Hunters Point. Imagine bicycling up the Hudson River Greenway in Manhattan next to a concrete wall between you and Hudson River Park. ![]() And they are an ideal fit for the geography of New York Harbor.Ĭentral to the Corps’s proposal, by contrast, are 50 miles of 12-to-20-foot-high floodwalls, levees and other shoreline structures that would interfere with public access and connection to the water on long stretches of existing developed waterfronts and parks, including Hunters Point, Greenpoint, Manhattan’s West Side and downtown Jersey City. These highly effective and reliable harborwide surge barriers can protect large areas while leaving shorelines free for recreation and other uses. Petersburg, Russia - have built arrays of movable gates across the main entrances to their harbors. Other cities facing such risks - including Rotterdam, the Netherlands London and St. As global warming raises sea levels, more of the region will be at risk, and the likelihood of Sandy-scale flooding will increase. In terms of population at risk, New York City is the most vulnerable city in the country, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit research organization. If built, this plan could reverse the region’s decades-long effort to open up its waterfront for recreation while, at best, protecting only a small fraction of the region’s most vulnerable areas from devastating storm surge flooding.Ĭoastal storm flooding is a grave risk to the region, as we saw when Hurricane Sandy swept through, causing 60 deaths and more than $70 billion in damage. The trouble is that despite its great ambitions, the Corps’s plan demonstrates the shortcomings of relying on massive shoreline structures for flood protection. It’s by far the most expensive project ever proposed by the Corps. The plan is estimated to cost a staggering $52.6 billion. It is an epic plan that includes dozens of miles of floodwalls, levees and berms along the shoreline and 12 storm surge barriers - arrays of movable gates - across entrances to waterways throughout the region. Army Corps of Engineers unveiled its proposal to protect the greater New York and New Jersey metro area from the next catastrophic flood. ![]() Gutman is an environmental planning consultant and a member of the New York-New Jersey Storm Surge Working Group. Yaro is a former president of the Regional Plan Association and a board member of Metro Flood Defense. Photographs by John Lehr for The New York Times Graphics by Quoctrung Bui and Taylor Maggiacomo ![]()
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