DDC AND NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT SHOWCASES EAST RIVER PARK RESILIENCY CONSTRUCTION

AMNY: The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) and the Parks Department recently took amNewYork Metro on a tour of the East River Park construction areas where the agencies externalized their plan for a grander greenspace that will also double as greater protection for the Manhattan waterfront.

“Welcome to the largest and most ambitious urban climate adaptation project in the world,” Commissioner of the City’s Design and Construction Jamie Torres-Springer said as he pointed to the aging, flaking footbridge that takes pedestrian traffic over the FDR Drive and into East River Park. “No more zigzagging,” he added, describing the easy new way New Yorkers will one day be able to access the bridge.

This overpass is but one of many new amenities both the DDC and the Parks Department are touting as improvements that will come as a result of the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) Project, a $1.4 billion plan that would reconstruct approximately 57 acres of coastal parkland from East 25th Street to Montgomery Street.

“We’ve got this project completed in the design and bided out so that we are ready to start construction in East River Park this fall. We’ve also started construction in the Northern part of the project where you can see we’ve already built 500 feet of the flood wall,” Torres-Springer said, describing the area near Stuyvesant Cove Park along the East River. Sheet piles were installed in this wall construction along with large steel beams creating both a strong anchor that protects against water infiltration. Read more>>

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