The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has approved $112.9 million for new street-level barriers across the World Trade Center site to protect the area from future severe storms.
The Port Authority Board of Commissioners approved the funding at its July 23 meeting for flood mitigation and resiliency projects designed to prevent the extensive level of flooding that occurred at the 16-acre Manhattan site during Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. The barriers will be installed primarily around the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, according to the Port Authority. Roughly 75 percent of the costs will be reimbursed through a grant from the Federal Transit Administration under its Emergency Relief Program.
"The devastating impact of Superstorm Sandy put all of us on notice that more must be done to protect the World Trade Center Transportation Hub and all of our critical transit facilities from the impact of severe weather events," said Port Authority Chairman John Degnan. "We take this challenge seriously and continue to invest in resiliency projects that we believe will provide an extensive level of protection should another major storm strike this region in the future."
The Port Authority is rated Aa3 with a stable outlook by Moody's Investors Service.
