City leaders from multiple agencies Monday (2/25/25) demonstrated recent progress in the coastal flood protection project along the East River by showing off new flip-up flood gates under FDR Drive. The Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resiliency (BMCR) project promises to use a combination of flood walls and deployable flip-up barriers to protect Manhattan’s Two Bridges neighborhood from severe coastal flooding and the type of damage that devastated the area during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
It is designed to act as a barrier against a 100-year coastal storm surge, accounting for sea level rise expected by 2050, while also improving access and recreation along the waterfront.
The project uses a series of 97 flood gates to create a 0.82-mile long, $349 million flexible flood barrier along the East River from the Brooklyn Bridge north to Montgomery Street, where it meets up with East Side Coastal Resiliency, its companion project to the north. Together the two projects will form a 3.22-mile flood protection system from the Brooklyn Bridge north to Asser Levy Playground on East 25th Street. Mayor Adams broke ground on BMCR in October 2022 to mark the 10‑year anniversary of Sandy. The first section of ESCR was completed in October 2024. Both projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
