First Phase of $2B Staten Island Flood Risk Reduction Project to Begin Construction in 2024

Looking west from the boardwalk in the South Beach area of Staten Island. Construction is scheduled to begin later this summer on a variety of storm-water drainage structures behind the infrastructure to reduce flood risk from severe storms and tidal surges.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District Office

New York-based Triumph Construction Corp. received a $132-million contract award for the first phase of a $2.3-billion flood-risk reduction project in Staten Island. Triumph will construct large interior drainage ponds and associated stormwater infrastructure for the South Shore of Staten Island project in South Beach, Staten Island.

The Triumph award, announced July 11, is the first of seven construction contracts for the project planned to begin over the next several years in response to extensive damage in the area following Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is partnering with the New York City's Dept. of Environmental Protection and state of New York to fund the project, the entire project area is increasingly vulnerable to storms, even those considered to be moderate. “This contract represents a significant step forward in protecting the south shore of Staten Island from future storm damages,” said New York District Commander Alexander Young at the Corps of Engineers, in a statement.

The entire New York metropolitan area is shoring up its defenses to be able to reduce flood risk, with a variety of projects in various stages of design and construction underway.

The scope of work for Triumph's initial contract includes constructing detention basins, an open channel culvert and stormwater drainage structures such as box culverts, junction chambers, sluice gates, weir chambers, flap gates and inlets for future stormwater connections, as well as relocating existing sanitary sewers.

Construction is expected to begin later this summer. Other phases of the project are still under design, the Corps of Engineers’ New York District office said.

Pam is ENR’s senior editor for government coverage, focusing on federal environmental and labor issues as they relate to the construction industry. She has a degree in journalism and an M.A. in writing fiction, and has worked previously as both an editor at ENR (2007-2016) and as a freelancer for a variety of publications and clients. One of her favorite gigs involved writing about stars, black holes and the mysteries of the universe for NASA.