Temporary Flood Barrier Will Be Installed In Red Hook

As part of the first phase of a $100 million flood protection plan in Red Hook, a barrier will be installed on Beard Street, city officials announced at the Red Hook Public Library last Saturday morning.

The 4-foot-high, dirt-filled Hesco flood barrier will be installed along Beard Street from Van Brunt Street to a point near the IKEA property line, DNA Info reports. “The barrier will abut the building at the corner of Van Brunt Street and abut the construction fence for the future Red Hoek Point,” a new office development slated to replace the Revere Sugar Factory, the article states.

The barrier on Beard Street will be high enough to protect the area from flood waters from a 10-year storm, but not a 100-year storm like 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.

If the city wants to prevent a storm surge from another Sandy-like superstorm, “a 16-foot permanent wall along the neighborhood’s entire waterfront” would need to be installed, a city official explained. This type of wall would obstruct residents’ views of the water and also prevent flood water that seeps inside the walls from flowing back out.

The Hesco flood barrier will be installed on the Red Hook waterfront by August, according to the article.

The next phase of this project entails “raising the level of Beard Street and erecting a buried floodwall,” DNA reports. These permanent solutions will be implemented by 2021 and must be approved by FEMA.

Learn more about the Red Hook Integrated Flood Protection Feasibility Study at NYCEDC (NYC Economic Development Corporation).