'Rebuild by Design' Winners Announced for New York and New Jersey Resilience

"The New York Metropolitan area will soon see a massive, $335 million berm along Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a $60 million living breakwater along Staten Island’s South Shore, a $20 million study of protecting the food distribution center in the Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point and a $125 million effort to protect north south waterways and the Mill River in Southern Nassau County," reports Graham T. Beck.

HUD also announced winning projects for New Jersey. "For the Garden State, $230 million will go into creating a 'resiliency district' in Hoboken, with the hopes of incentivizing public-private financing for further enhancements to the area, and $150 million will go towards wetland restoration in the Meadowlands."

Laura Kusisto reports more details of the competition's winners, including “The Big U,” designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, which produced designs to "protect the lower half of Manhattan with structures that also serve as recreation sites." That project was awarded the largest share of the competition's funding, $335 million. That award "will go toward building a portion of the first phase of a 10-mile protective barrier on Manhattan's east side."

"The first step will be creating an earthen berm 10 to 20 feet tall that will run along the middle of East River Park and FDR Drive and will connect residents to the river by sloping bridges over the highway." The complete first phase of the project would cost about $1.2 billion.

Graham T. Beck also reports on the expected delivery timelines for the projects: "Their timelines for completion have not been set, but at a press conference today, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio promised the audience that work would begin as soon as possible and continue until the job was done. 'Over four or five years, you’ll see a hugely different physical reality in this city,' he said."