Beautiful views off Breezy Point in the Rockaways could change; Connecting Queens all the way to Sandy Hook, New Jersey could be a barrier to shelter the city from flooding.
"This would save lives," said Bob Yaro of Storm Surge Working Group. "It will save tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars over its life in avoided flooding and disruption of the economy in the region."
Yaro's group calls not just for a barrier in the outer harbor, but also tying Queens to the Bronx near the Throgs Neck Bridge.
The group notes that New York lags behind London, the Netherlands, and even Russia.
"We're kind of standing down on the beach with our pants down around our ankles," Yaro said. "This is not how we want to protect this great city from these dangers."
And in a sign of its influence, a conference on the "urgent need for a regional barrier" is co-sponsored by the Port Authority.
But building a barrier isn't easy. The whole harbor system could cost $25 billion.
A rendering, seen in the video above, shows laying a highway on top to help pay, if it's given a permit.
Complicating matters further, Breezy Point is a private, gated community, whose residents aren't seen as exactly eager for interstate traffic to come through.
The group pushing the barrier says it's just an idea. Others question whether the barrier is needed at all.
9 comments:
Twenty five million dollars is not nearly enough, we must look for a more costly plan...
Given the geology of the New York and New Jersey coasts, it's not clear what's going to stop the ocean from carving through the barrier beach at either side of the barrier. Hardened waterfront structures on sand beaches tend to increase the speed and severity of erosion at the base and edges of such structures, so it would seem that for this to work, the barrier would have to be tied into bedrock (easy to find on the NJ mainland, but practically impossible on Long Island). Absent that, there would have to be a willingness to sacrifice both barrier beach and shoreline construction at one or both ends of the barrier.
This is a dandy idea, but wouldn't a second barrier also need to be built between Throgs Neck and Fort Totten? Otherwise wouldn't it be like installing an expensive front security door while leaving a torn unlocked screen door out back? During Sandy, the LI Sound flooded too.
Since Bob (Robert) Yaro retired from the Regional Plan Association he needs something to do.
http://www.rpa.org/article/rpa-president-bob-yaro-to-retire
They lead the way to gentrification.
They tried controlling water and tides at the 1964 Worlds Fair, it didn't work to well it screwed all of Flushing up. Bridge with gates and motors still there frozen and rusted in time along with the transformer vaults.
Amsterdam ? NYC & Long Island is not the London Thames river or some shitty little village in Europe where you slap down some 200 feet water locks.
Can somebody s'plain me why after 200+ years of doing fine why this sudden huge push to follow Europe & Russia and ram everything they do down our throats at gunpoint ?
If you look at old maps of Queens one would be shocked how much of it was streams, lakes and ponds. The water will find a way ! This land is glacial and must be 1000s of back doors that can open up we don't know about. These people are morons !!
Hell they still cant fix Cooper ave from flooding, people need to swim out car windows
SOMETHING BETTER BE DONE BEFORE THE NEXT SANDY HITS NY!
The number is 25 BILLION, not million. Barriers work, but they are high maintenance cost and need to be manned and activated-- additional labor costs. Cities and states don't want them for that reason. Europe is different. They socialize everything. There, people want the government to tax and spend on these things.
I know, once something is tried in 1964 we should never try again.
>>Anonymous said...
>> They tried controlling water and tides at the 1964 Worlds Fair, it didn't work to well
Because sea levels are rising and those countries face the same problem and are being used as an example. My god, is it really that difficult for you to understand this?
>> Can somebody s'plain me why after 200+ years of doing fine why this sudden huge push to >> follow Europe & Russia and ram everything they do down our throats at gunpoint ?
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