New York City has proposed extending the coastline of the East River up to 200 feet from its existing shore with a two-level protective esplanade meant to combat sea-level rise and storm surge, which come when climate change worsens. This is just the latest element in the city’s four-part plan to protect Lower Manhattan.
The project, revealed on Wednesday, would cost between $5 billion and $7 billion and could prevent up to $1 billion in annual damages when completed in the 2050s, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency (MOCR), co-authors of the plan.
Dubbed the FiDi and Seaport Climate Resilience Master Plan, the project would protect 140 acres of Lower Manhattan between Battery Park and the Brooklyn Bridge — one of the nation’s largest central business districts and among its most vulnerable to…
