The proposal for 12 movable sea barriers across waterways like Jamaica Bay replaces a disputed plan for a single, larger outer-harbor wall.
Excerpt from this New York Times story:
Almost 10 years after Hurricane Sandy’s floods devastated coastal New York and New Jersey, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has unveiled its latest vision of how to protect the region from future storms: a $52 billion proposal to build 12 movable sea barriers across the mouths of major bays and inlets along New York Harbor.
The plan would be by far the region’s largest project to address storms that are growing more frequent and intense as the planet warms from the burning of fossil fuels and the only one attempting to defend the whole New York Harbor region. If Congress approved the proposal, the federal government would pay 65 percent of the cost.
It will also undoubtedly reignite a debate over the right approach to a complex problem — managing flood risks related to climate change, which is expected to raise sea levels one to six feet by the end of the century.
The new proposal, unveiled Saturday, would build sea gates across locations including Jamaica Bay in Queens and the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. It comes two and a half years after the Army Corps shelved a previous version that centered on a single, much larger gate across outer New York Harbor, from the Rockaway peninsula in Queens to Sandy Hook in New Jersey.
The new Army Corps proposal would include a series of sea gates — movable walls to be closed only for major storms — that would block waterways around Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey, along with 31 miles of land-based levees, elevated shorelines and sea walls. It would require approval from the state and local governments that would foot the rest of the bill.
The proposal — like its predecessor — lands squarely in a broader resiliency debate, over how much to rely on each of two approaches that most experts think will have to be combined. One relies on engineered solutions, like building sea barriers that try to control water flows, along with walls and levees that defend coastlines. The other approach focuses on remaking waterfront areas so that they are more compatible with rising seas and intensifying weather: restoring marshlands, relocating some communities and redesigning others.
The Army Corps proposal would do some of each approach and has been revised to take into account public concerns, but its focus remains on sea barriers and walls. The Corps estimates it would be finished by 2044 and would save an average of $6.2 billion in flood damage a year for the next five decades.
