New York can be protected from the ocean by a giant wall: why is it necessary

With the help of the wall, they want to protect New York from floods that can become more frequent due to global warming. Construction can take 25 years and cost $ 119 billion. The project has already caused controversy, as the publication writes. Fox News.

About Orchard

The construction of the 9,5-kilometer wall is a project of the US Army. Thus, military engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers offer to protect New York from possible floods associated with global warming. Its construction can cost $ 119 billion and take up to 25 years.

The wall will be a series of interconnected gates. They will be united by artificial islands about 9,6 km long in the Lower New York Bay - between Sandy Hook and the Rockaway Peninsula.

The project was called "Alternative 2". This is the largest and most expensive of several hypothetical concepts for protecting New York from future storms.

The corps plans to release its final report and recommendations tentatively in 2022. After that, the report will be reviewed by the US Congress.

The authorities' response

President of America Donald Trump has already criticized such an idea. He called it "stupid, expensive and damaging ecology." Although the reaction of the US president is predictable, given his attitude to climate change, many local politicians are also critical of the plan.

In turn, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote in response to Trump: “We lost 44 of our inhabitants during Hurricane Sandy. You must remember this, you lived here at that time. Your denial of climate change is not just dangerous for those you have vowed to protect. It is deadly. ”

Experts also controversially assess the feasibility and overall effectiveness of such a barrier.

Expediency of construction

Despite criticism from politicians, the giant sea wall is a serious proposal and is being considered as part of a long-term research project designed to prevent a repeat of the death and destruction caused by the 2012 storm.

Catherine McVeigh Hughes, who led a public council in lower Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy, supports the idea of ​​building - but only in the harbor, and not near the coastline, the newspaper said. The New York Times.

However, other proponents and experts believe the wall may be out of date by the time construction is completed, due to changed estimates of future sea level rise. “This sea gate will not be able to protect the population from flooding caused by tides and sea level rise once it is built,” said New York financial inspector Scott Stringer. In a recent letter to the Corps, he called for a revision of the construction plan.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the last five years have become the warmest in the history of observations.

Recall that Hurricane Sandy in 2012 was the second, in terms of consequences, a hurricane in the United States. He caused nearly $ 70 billion in damage and killed at least 233 people in eight states. In New York, thousands of homes and about 250 thousand vehicles were destroyed, and all road tunnels leading to Manhattan were flooded.