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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/24/science/earth/new-york-reassessing-building-code-to-limit-storm-damage.html?_r=0
After Storm, Dry Floors Prove Value of Exceeding City Code
In the countdown to Hurricane Sandy last month, construction workers on a teeming pier in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, rushed to strap down materials and move forklifts and excavators into half-built structures to shield them from the tempest to come.
But the real storm preparations had been accomplished six years earlier, when Sims Metal Management approved a design for a state-of-the-art city recycling plant that is rising at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.
Reviewing projections for local sea-level rise, the company and its architects decided to elevate portions of the site to heights exceeding city requirements by four feet. Using recycled glass and crushed rock discarded from projects like the Second Avenue subway line, they raised the foundation for the plants four buildings and a dock.
The fill added $550,000 to the plants costs of around $100 million, said Thomas Outerbridge, Sims Metals general manager.
But it proved more than worth it. When a 12-foot storm surge swept through nearby streets and parking lots on Oct. 29, the plants dock and partly completed buildings did not flood.
It paid for itself long before we expected it, Mr. Outerbridge said. It was built with the idea that, over the next 40 years, this would prove a prudent thing and the proof came during construction. ...
Good read, but the point is that there are very few requirements of climate-change adaptation that do not have practical and pragmatic value in advance of the extremes they are designed to ameliorate.
After Storm, Dry Floors Prove Value of Exceeding City Code
In the countdown to Hurricane Sandy last month, construction workers on a teeming pier in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, rushed to strap down materials and move forklifts and excavators into half-built structures to shield them from the tempest to come.
But the real storm preparations had been accomplished six years earlier, when Sims Metal Management approved a design for a state-of-the-art city recycling plant that is rising at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.
Reviewing projections for local sea-level rise, the company and its architects decided to elevate portions of the site to heights exceeding city requirements by four feet. Using recycled glass and crushed rock discarded from projects like the Second Avenue subway line, they raised the foundation for the plants four buildings and a dock.
The fill added $550,000 to the plants costs of around $100 million, said Thomas Outerbridge, Sims Metals general manager.
But it proved more than worth it. When a 12-foot storm surge swept through nearby streets and parking lots on Oct. 29, the plants dock and partly completed buildings did not flood.
It paid for itself long before we expected it, Mr. Outerbridge said. It was built with the idea that, over the next 40 years, this would prove a prudent thing and the proof came during construction. ...
Good read, but the point is that there are very few requirements of climate-change adaptation that do not have practical and pragmatic value in advance of the extremes they are designed to ameliorate.