New York’s Battery Park City Authority awarded a $631 million sea level resiliency project at the southern tip of Manhattan to a progressive design-build team that includes a joint venture between Turner Construction and E.E. Cruz. 

The combined North & West Battery Park City Resiliency project spans Battery Park City’s North Esplanade to the waterfront at BPC’s western edge, one of lower Manhattan’s most vulnerable points for storm surge inundation and flooding. 

The project will include approximately 8,000 linear feet of flood and seepage barriers, including a deployable barrier crossing of West Street that extends uptown to Tribeca. 

Other interior drainage improvements will help protect the parkland and esplanade in the 92-acre neighborhood along the Hudson River that’s often the backdrop of movie scenes featuring joggers and dog walkers. 

The progressive design-build team also includes Amsterdam-based design and engineering consultancy Arcadis; Copenhagen-based architecture firm Bjark Ingels Group; New York’s Scape Landscape Architecture; and Montreal-based general contractor WSP, according to a Turner release. 

“Strengthening the resilience of Battery Park City and surrounding areas through a world-class solution that addresses storm surges, rising sea levels, and the threat of climate change will have a profound, positive impact on this vibrant community and much of lower Manhattan," said Charlie Whitney, vice president at Turner, in a statement. 

Peter Glus, North American growth director for Arcadis, said the firm "is proud to support the Battery Park City Authority with this transformative resiliency project that protects residents and the people of lower Manhattan from future storms while also respecting and evolving the world-class open space and waterfront that is fundamental to the neighborhood’s identity."

The project comprises two of three resiliency efforts being initiated by BPCA. A separate, $231 million plan focuses on South Battery Park City, home to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, Wagner Park and the iconic Staten Island Ferry terminal. All three are part of the larger Lower Manhatten Coastal Resiliency plan.