Resilience is a Multi-Pronged Challenge in N.Y.-N.J. Region

 New Jersey’s heightened climate change risk makes the push for infrastructure resilience critical in a state with close to 130 miles of mostly developed coastline, the third fastest-rising temperatures among U.S. states and a FEMA-recorded flood loss total that is second only to Texas. With such stats, Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of its Dept. of Environmental Protection, told the ENR NY-NJ Infrastructure Forum Sept. 16 that “climate mitigation touches every sector of our industry and society.”

 This includes addressing what caused a nine-mile algae bloom two years ago that “affected one of the state’s most consequential drinking water intakes,” he said to more than 430 industry attendees at the Manhattan event, noting the urgency of steps being taken to ensure “we are building in a resilient manner … if we are to avoid more catastrophic impacts.”

 LaTourette acknowledged that regulators may not “be ready to face down all the risks, [but] we can help citizens shore up and become more resilient to climate issues.” He noted a three-part agency approach that emphasizes “thought leadership” in resilience; mitigation through state and federally funded programs it oversees such as Blue Acres inland flood zone property purchases; and “supportive statewide regulatory reforms.”

 The agency is “advancing many initiatives to integrate our climate realities into governance,” said LaTourette, Including a $1-billion upgrade that would boost resilience of the 1,200-acre Liberty State Park that faces Manhattan along the Hudson River and the proposed Resilient Environments and Landscapes Rules (REAL) that would create coastal inundation zones that require 5 feet of elevation in new structures, and also in redeveloped ones that were previously exempt.

 The rule package could make New Jersey the first state to do a “comprehensive update” of climate-focused coastal development rules, according to NJDEP, and would include amendments to existing state flood hazard, stormwater, coastal zone and freshwater wetland regulations. REAL also would address issues affecting overburdened communities.

 “We are 1727135927 using data from 20 years ago to rebuild that won’t result in better resilience,” said LaTourette. “State flood boundaries are bigger than what FEMA maps say.” He said REAL “is meant to correct for old data,” noting that “we need to look at the reality in designing and constructing in areas that won’t be inundated.” Experts project a 2-ft sea level rise affecting New Jersey by 2050. “We have to be honest on the reality of our changing climate,” LaTourette said.

 But the new requirements are strongly opposed by state business groups, with one claiming they are based “on the policy that people and businesses should be forced to retreat from the coast” and on “flawed scientific assumptions.” Noting that insurers “are waking up to realities now” of climate change risks in New Jersey, LaTourette said “they need to be convinced that [it] remains a safe bet.”

 He added: “If you come to us with something resilient, we will make sure you get a permit.”

 Bridges Face New Risks

 Resilience of regional bridge infrastructure was a particular conference focus, related both to climate impacts and to those caused by human error—following the March Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore from a vessel strike that killed six construction workers who were on the structure.

 Bridge designers and managers face new challenges in planning for known risks but also for those that are less predictable but still within the realm of “known unknowns,” said Rizwan Baig, Port Authority of NY and NJ chief engineer. He said engineers have long designed for potential risk, but knowing how to address unexpected or still unknown impacts is a more uncertain and demanding task. “You need to train your engineering workforce to not reach for the engineering manual all the time to solve the problem,” he said.

Jamie Barbas, a veteran bridge construction executive in the New York region, told the ENR NY-NJ Infrastructure conference ‘there’s alot in bridge design we can really try to harden.” She is flanked by Rizwan Baig, Port Authority of NY and NJ chief engineer (l) and Maria Lehman, White House National Infrastructure Advisory Council vice chair and American Society of Civil Engineers president emeritus (r).
Photo by Kristen Blush Photography for ENR

A new engineering study released Sept. 23 by Johns Hopkins University cited the Verrazzano Narrows bridge in New York City and Bayonne Bridge between Staten Island and New Jersey among its top ten U.S. spans facing risk from “megaships” longer than 300 meters. 

“We’re asking, ‘What is the probability of a very large ship taking out another bridge?’ and to get at that question, the first thing we have to do is understand the actual ship traffic under major bridges across the U.S.,” said Michael Shields, a university civil engineering professor and risk assessment specialist who led the National Science Foundation supported study of about 200 bridges. “It’s very clear where the heavy traffic is happening and these bridges should be prioritized for more careful and rigorous risk analysis,” he said. More study results will be released next year.

 Firms design for certain risks, such as blasts or cables cut “by bad actors,” noted Jamie Barbas, New York State Thruway Authority project executive, MTA board member and Gateway Development Commissioner. “There’s a lot in bridge design we can really try to harden and make sure that [such damage impacts] are unlikely to be successful,” she said. While bridges built to standards developed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials are “a very solid foundation for engineering,” she said, they have often lagged behind emerging trends and new technologies.  “We really need a dynamic code, one that is constantly changing and being evaluated,” Barbas said.

 Paul Schwartz, a New York City Dept. of Transportation deputy commissioner in its bridge division, noted the agency push for “performance-based metrics” in bridge design as opposed to prescriptive ones, working with city climate experts to set design criteria based on targeted sea level rise and include them in the agency capital plan.  He also noted need for more preventive maintenance “because there’s no way we’re going to be able to get out there and upgrade everything overnight.” Schwartz added: “Sometimes it’s the simple things that lead to really disastrous incidents. We’re looking at the way structures have changed over time and settled.”

The city Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority is using technology “to look for trespassers and put out alerts when those trespassers actually show up,” agency President Catherine Sheridan told attendees. “We rely on standards to guide our engineering decisions in light of the changes we’re seeing, both natural and human made. But are those standards sufficient and what needs to change to allow us to design and build more resilient infrastructure?”

But there remains a major lag in integrating protective national standards into codes at the local level, said Maria Lehman, vice chair of the White House National Infrastructure Advisory Council, ASCE president emeritus and GHD national infrastructure director. “That’s like open season for lawyers to sue you,” she said.

Bridge design managers must be more diligent in ensuring that once a standard is adopted, “to really push it into practice,” Lehman said. “It’s a difficult thing to address, so we’re going to need seismic change in our thought process on this … and we’re going to need funding because it can’t rely on volunteers or state agencies already short staffed.”

 Keeping Diversity Efforts Resilient   

 Forum speakers also noted the need to keep business diversity programs resilient to contribute needed project staff and expertise—particularly as those programs face new legal challenges filed by right-leaning groups and states in conservative courts that show more willingness to end or curtail them. Paul Monte, partner at law firm Peckar & Abramson, noted the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that struck down a university admissions affirmative action program as unconstitutional and pointed to lower courts in Tennessee and Texas that want more clarity on how programs are tailored, why they lack end dates and what their measures of success are.

 “I think it’s a matter of when and not if” government diversity programs
 in construction “are taken down—and that’s a tough thing to say,” Phillip A. Washington, CEO of national nonprofit The Equity in Infrastructure Project, told attendees. The program, which grew out of the 2021 federal infrastructure law, now includes up to 75 U.S. infrastructure agencies at different levels that are committed to award more prime contracts to historically underutilized businesses, he said.

 Port Authority relies on hundreds of small businesses, many that are minority- and women-owned “to support our operation,” said José Febrillet, its chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. He said the recently completed LaGuardia Airport redevelopment included $2.2 billion awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses, as well as over $1 billion to local businesses.

 Agency managers collaborated in the outreach, said Gregory A. Jenifer, CEO of consultant Armand Resource Group, who assisted in the effort to ease insurance requirements, among other barriers to entry. But he acknowledged that smaller businesses must be realistic about their capabilities. “It’s a matter of responsiveness and understanding needs,” he said.

 With much upcoming transit construction in New York City, “the ability to impact the economic disparity and economic health of our community cannot be ignored,” Lourdes Zapata, MTA chief diversity and inclusion officer, told attendees. She noted an agency local pilot effort that now actively monitors four projects to track local impact in recruitment, hours worked and salaries for an assessment of “when you can take your foot off the pedal—and we are not there yet.”