U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Forget Pork -- Nadler Brings Home T-Groins

Jerrold Nadler's office just announced that he has gotten a $2.4 million appropriation written into the House's energy and water appropriations bill for next year.

The money is intended to go towards a project that would slow beachhead erosion on Coney Island by building... T-Groins.  read more »

I think we'll let them explain this one. Read on for the full release.

Ikea Gets the Army's Nod

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A parking lot and a box on the waterfront.
According to the Brooklyn Eagle (pdf), Swedish superstore-star Ikea is gaining steam in its quest to transform the Brooklyn waterfront into a big blue box.

The cheap-yet-cute furniture chain received approval last Friday from the Army Corps of Engineers to develop its store at Beard and Richards street (just across the way from Lilie's Bar) in Red Hook. So far, only asbestos has been removed from the site. Now the retailer is free to remove the historic graving docks and shore up deteriorating bulkheads at the New York Shipyard.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

Escape from New York: If We Get Level 3 Storm, A Million Evacuees

Experts say that 1 million New Yorkers live in zones that would have to be evacuated in a hurricane of level 3 or higher; Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he can get that done in 17 hours, and is prepared to use force.
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Experts say that 1 million New Yorkers live in zones that would have to be evacuated in a hurricane of level 3 or higher; Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he can get that done in 17 hours, and is prepared to use force.

Make Way for Ducklings

The struggling NY Waterway ferry company, which was, to the delight of punning headline writers, bailed out of bankruptcy as recently as last December, is--we can't help ourselves--wading into unchartered waters.

Earlier this month, a subsidiary named Port Imperial Duck Charterers LLC submitted an application to the Army Corps of Engineers for a pier at 38th Street that would let the company take tourists on amphibious vehicles into and out of the Hudson and around New York streets. These vehicles are commonly known as ducks and pretty much every other seaboard city has them--even some non-seaboard cities like Albany. New York always seems to be the last to get on board.

"New York Waterway currently has an arrangement with Coach USA where they take people out on boats to do sightseeing cruises and then the bus to do land excursions and this would consolidate that," spokesman Pat Smith said. "You can literally say they are testing the waters."

Some anti-duck, pro-fish environmentalists don't like the project. Marcy Benstock, who blocked Westway on behalf of the striped bass, tells the Real Estate that her group, the Clean Air Campaign, will submit testimony to the Army Corps arguing that the pier would constitute unnecessary encroachment of development into the river.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman

On High Alert, City Water Boss Hops to Action

Chris Ward, Mayor Bloomberg's commissioner of the city Department of Environmental Protection, recen  read more »