Principal, Ports and Marine Terminals Stantec New York, New York, United States
Abstract: Waterfront infrastructure must be both resilient and sustainable. The Battery, which lies at the southern tip of Manhattan, is part of a series of major projects that make up the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resilience (LMCR) initiative. The Battery Project, at a cost of $200 Million, has been planned and designed to ensure that the LMCR projects will work together as a compatible, unified system, offering a consistent level of coastal flood risk reduction to Lower Manhattan.
Major project elements include reconstruction of the existing deteriorated, low-lying wharf, accommodate passenger ferry uses, and integration of universal accessibility to esplanade. The Battery Coastal Resilience Project will rebuild and elevate the wharf promenade. The proposed design will incorporate sustainable and resilient features to protect The Battery and help it withstand and recover from future flooding. The project is reconstructing the existing aging and failing wharf originally constructed in the 1940’s with a new elevated wharf that provides upland park protection from the 90th percentile sea level rise scenario in year 2100.
The Battery Coastal Resilience project will integrate two layers of protection: an elevated waterfront edge to mitigate risks from sea level rise and future storm surge protection built on higher ground. Accounting for over 6 feet of sea level rise required extensive coordination with the National Park Service vessel operators, who ferry four million tourists per year to the Statue of Liberty from The Battery, and consideration of their operations. The wharf design had to provide good berthing and loading operations for the ferry vessels at present day water levels, while also planning for future higher sea levels, all while maintaining universal design principles. These seemingly disparate requirements led the project team’s development of an innovative two-slip adaptive design system. The system allows vessels to berth at a slip that best suits the tidal elevations in the near term. Once critical sea level rise elevation thresholds are reached, the lower slip is designed to be cost-effectively elevated, and become the new higher elevation slip.
The technical design of the wharf accounted for several challenges including upland historical structures such as Castle Clinton and Pier A Building, and several monuments and art pieces. Subsurface conditions further complicated the structural design considering poor geotechnical soils and existing infrastructure such as several internal and CSO outfalls, the Battery Underpass, and the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel.
A Lifecycle analyses program was adopted early in design and allowed informed, quantifiable decisions to be made on selection of materials and structural systems based on embodied carbon. The program was able to considerably reduce the project’s embodied carbon through adoption of low density fill materials, concrete cementitious material replacements, and material transportation strategies. The lifecycle analysis program and climate adaptation strategies helped win the highest Envision Certification Level for the project.
The project is currently under construction with major sections of wharf to be completed by the Ports Conference. Construction lessons learned and best practices will be included.
How does this project / topic contribute to the advancement of the industry and profession?: Contains a case study of high profile urban coastal resilience project. Extensive climate mitigation and adaptation strategies were utilized and can be incorporated into future, lower-profile resilience projects.
Does the project / topic implement new and innovative techniques, materials, technologies, and delivery methods?: Lifecycle assessment of embodied carbon and deliberate use of low carbon design strategies, such as low-carbon concrete, is a trend in Civil Infrastructure and emerging in waterfront projects.
What was the most challenging aspect of your project / topic and how did you handle it to ensure success?: The ferry berthing design was the most challenging. Factoring current conditions, sea level rise, 5ft tides, 7 different vessels with different freeboards, stringent accessibility codes, vessel operations... All of these elements had to come together to design a berthing slip that not only was functional for ferry operations but also experience by the public as an esplanade.
Who is the target audience for this paper?: urban waterfront owners and designers
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