The newly launched NYC Rapid Repairs program has attracted more than 2,000 contractors, Lou Coletti, president and CEO of the Building Trades Employers' Association (BTEA), which was one of the groups hosting contractor registration. This is "more than enough" for the program, which launched Nov. 9 and in recent weeks began sending teams of contractors to homes severely damaged by Superstorm Sandy. Photo by Luke Abaffy The NYC Rapid Repair program is in partnership with FEMA and is aimed at helping residents, some of whom have had to abandon their homes due to Superstorm Sandy. The free city program, in

ENR New York's website was active this year as the number of readers that spent time viewing news and project pages grew from the prior year. Related Links: Bloomberg Unveils Post-Sandy Strategy; Names NYCEDC to Oversee 2 NYC Groups Granted FEMA's 1st Round of Post-Sandy Recovery Funds Recovery Work Takes Center Stage Some Tristate Projects Suffer Sandy's Blow City Puts Old Rail Cars to Use Sandy's Combined N.Y.-N.J. Damage Estimate Stands at About $62.8B Cuomo Forms 3 Groups to Improve NYS's Natural Disaster Preparedness Carpenters Nail Down Volunteer Work in Sandy-Stricken Areas Cuomo: Sandy Cost NYS about $33 Billion After

The NYU Langone Medical Center and the New York Police Dept. (NYPD) are set to receive the first round of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding for Superstorm Sandy costs. Under the deal, which totals about $190 million, FEMA will grant Langone $114,632,500 for emergency costs in the wake of the storm and FEMA Public Assistance will award the NYPD $75,660,695 for overtime and compensatory time costs. This is not the final amount of funding for reimbursement work throughout the city, U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (NY-D) and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-D) said in a Dec. 4 statement."The city's first responders and

After years of delays, the 26-acre Hudson Yards site, Manhattan's single-largest undeveloped property and New York City's largest private development since Rockefeller Center, broke ground on its first building today, Dec. 4. Led by general contractor Tutor Perini and builder Tishman Construction, work on the $1-billion-plus, 47-story South office tower at 10th Ave. and 30th St. is set for completion in 2015. The 1.7-million-sq-ft, mixed-use tower, designed by New York-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, is part of a planned $15-billion complex to be built over a Long Island Railroad storage yard. Other planned structures on the site include a 2.4-million-sq-ft

Now that Superstorm Sandy's floodwaters have receded and power is restored to most of the millions it affected, industry executives in the tristate region are warily eyeing the sudden surge in construction activity and spending. The storm's boost to industry may last till around mid-2013, they say. But, unlike Sandy, that boost is not powerful enough to affect the industry's long-term economic outlook dramatically. Related Links: ENR New York: Bright Spots in an Otherwise Hazy Outlook More ENR New York Features That is in part because the storm slowed or stopped projects in the last quarter of 2012; whether and

For the first time, New Jersey nabbed the top spot this year in terms of installing photovoltaic (PV) capacity, surpassing California, the country's longtime solar energy leader. Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G), New Jersey's largest utility, has already built a hefty portion of that capacity and, by early 2013, will wrap up a four-year program to install 40 megawatts of power via telephone pole-mounted solar units. The distributed solar program, which will provide enough energy to power 6,500 homes, is the largest of its type worldwide. Image Courtesy of Petra Solar Sunnyside Up: Smart grid technology is at

Immediately after "Superstorm" Sandy, N.Y. and N.J. officials indicated that the cost of the storm's damage would be staggering but now they have come up with preliminary estimates of just how formidable. The combined total damage estimate for both states is about $62.8 billion, according to official reports. N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, citing a study with local government officials and private firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and the PFM Group, estimates that repair work and response to the storm cost New York State $32.8 billion and he anticipates a further $9.1 billion in mitigation and prevention costs. N.J. Gov. Chris Christie says

Nearly three weeks after Superstorm Sandy hit the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut coastline with an unprecedented combination of wind and storm surge, public-private teams have largely dealt with power outages and flood emergencies and now are turning their attention to damage in infrastructure and to longer-term restoration, debris cleanup, structural assessments and housing for the thousands who were displaced.

New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo has formed three commissions to study how best to overhaul the state's emergency preparedness and response capabilities and how to improve infrastructure to better withstand monster storms like Hurricane Sandy. The commissions have a Jan. 3, 2013 deadline for making recommendations. Major storms have revealed major weaknesses in the state's transportation, energy, communications and health infrastructures, Cuomo said in a statement today, Nov. 16. The new commissions—dubbed NYS 2100, NYS Respond and NYS Ready—will help prepare and equip the state for future natural disasters, he said."Over the past two years, New York State has

The first damage and economic loss estimates of Hurricane Sandy are pegged at about $33 billion for New York State and $50 billion for the region, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today, Nov. 8, in an update on the storm. "That is a staggering number, especially with the financial situation that we’ve been in," he said. The state may also incur, at least, an additional $1 billion deficit due to the storm, Cuomo said.The governor also criticized utilities, calling them monopolies, for being unprepared. "Part of it is the system design and part of it is just their performance, and part