New York City will be awarded $176 million in federal funding to build a new flood protection system around Lower Manhattan.
The money would be used to help fortify a stretch of shoreline from Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side to the northern tip of Battery Park City. Specific measures have not yet been determined, but could include adding sea walls and temporary flood walls that could be deployed before a storm, and building grass berms that could double as recreational areas, reported the New York Times.
The city is receiving the money through a national contest created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help communities recover from disasters and better prepare for them, the Times said.
The federal competition, called the National Disaster Resilience Competition, identified 40 states and local communities — including New York City, New York State, New Jersey and Connecticut — as finalists in June in the first phase of the contest. The finalists represented areas that have been affected by major disasters declared by Barack Obama in 2011, 2012 and 2013, according to the Times.
