Two engineers at Halcrow have come up with a conceptual design for a storm-surge barrier to protect the New York metropolitan area.
The potential for storm surges, along with rising sea levels as a result of climate change, is a growing concern in delta cities around the world. Such a surge would cause significant damage to real-estate and economic activities in and around New York.
To prevent such an event from happening, Halcrow was asked to provide ideas of what storm-surge barriers aimed at protecting the New York and New Jersey metropolitan region from severe coastal flooding might look like.
Graeme Forsyth and Dennis Padron's idea is to build a barrier that would stretch across the entrance of the outer harbour of New York and New Jersey.
The NY-NJ Outer Harbor Gateway involves a five-mile flood defence extending between the Rockaway Peninsula and Sandy Hook, plus the reinforcement of some 10 miles of the natural defences along these low-lying peninsulas.
The barrier would include two gates in the main navigation channel, with each gate having two leaves, each measuring the length of a football pitch. The barrier would also include smaller gates for two secondary navigation channels and 50 sluice gates, each 80ft (24m) across. The concept would allow for a road to run along the top of the causeway connecting the two states.
Halcrow’s concept is based on a similar project that the company has been involved with in St Petersburg, where the Russian government has funded a 15-mile-long barrier, which is due for completion in 2010.
Massive new Coventry campus targets 60GWh battery output
Where will all the raw materials come from for the manufacturing process? How will they be transported to the factory and what is going to be done with the various scrap and residues?