Gothamist: If Hurricane Sandy were to occur again today, many of the same coastal neighborhoods it destroyed would be inundated again. But a slate of climate infrastructure projects initiated in the aftermath of the storm are now — finally — making progress along the city’s waterfront.

Billions of dollars of seawalls, jetties, breakwaters, and reinforced dunes are being erected along the waterfronts of Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Rockaway Peninsula. These barriers promise to protect the coastline for several decades ahead, as sea levels rapidly rise and severe storms become more frequent. The entire 520-mile coastline of New York City faces an uncertain future amid these threats.

Significant work has been completed on three of these ongoing projects, which will cost $1.9 billion in total: the East Side Coastal Resiliency project in Manhattan, the Living Breakwaters in Staten Island, and the Rockaways-Atlantic Shorefront project in Queens. Preparatory work has also begun for a seawall that will stretch along Staten Island’s east coast, and construction is expected to begin in the next few weeks on a coastal barrier in Battery Park City, as part of the South Battery Park City Resiliency project. Read More >>