ARCADIS will also work with its partners—NEIWPCC; Stevens; The Nature Conservancy; New York City Dept. of Parks and Recreation; SCAPE Landscape Architecture; and Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects—to study strategies and present findings at a workshop tentatively planned for next summer, says an ARCADIS spokeswoman.

Strategies to be considered will include restoring, creating or emulating natural coastal features such as living shorelines, ecologically enhanced bulkheads, vegetated dunes, beach nourishments and artificial reefs, she says.

New York

Blue Ribbon Panel to Study MTA Rail Safety

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) says it has established a blue ribbon panel of six rail and transportation experts to study circumstances behind recent safety-related incidents at MTA Metro North Railroad, MTA Long Island Rail Road and MTA New York City Transit.

The panel will study the causes behind safety incidents, examine the agency's maintenance and inspection programs and "ensure they promote a culture of safety within the MTA," the agency said in a Sept. 20 statement.

"We want to learn lessons so these particular problems never happen again, but also we want to make sure the MTA has a rigorous safety culture that ensures every employee works to prevent unforeseen problems in the future," Thomas Prendergast, MTA chairman and CEO, said in the statement.

The panelists include Mortimer L. Downey, former U.S. deputy secretary of transportation and former MTA executive director and chief financial officer.

New York

Study: Residential Sector Boosts NYC Starts

The housing sector is behind the 10% growth in New York City construction starts in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to a recent New York Building Congress analysis of Dodge data from McGraw Hill Construction, parent firm of ENR New York.

Some $7.9 billion worth of construction projects were started this year, compared with $7.2 billion in the first half of 2012.

The NYBC study consists of all city projects including new construction as well as alterations and renovations. It also reflects the estimated value of each initiated project through the entire period of construction.

The residential increase "is owed entirely to the housing sector, which appears to have fully recovered from the financial downturn that started in 2008," NYBC says. The value of residential construction starts in the first half reached $2.7 billion, a 45% increase over the same period last year.

NYBC says the top project starts by value were the $365-million Durst Fetner project at 625 W. 57th St. and the Moinian Group's Atelier II development on W. 42nd St.

"We are continuing to see some very strong numbers coming out of New York's residential sector," Richard Anderson, NYBC president, said in a statement. "Over a 12-month period from July 2012 through June 2013, the value of residential construction starts topped $6 billion."

The non-residential sector, however, declined slightly, the study shows. It reached only $3.7 billion in the first half of this year, compared with $3.8 billion for the year-ago period.

The non-building sector held steady compared with last year at $1.5 billion, NYBC adds.

New York

Rockaway Pipeline Project Awaits FERC Ruling

Federal regulators dealt a blow recently to Williams Partners LP in putting off a decision for six months on whether to approve the firm's plans to build a 3.17-mile natural gas pipeline extension off the coast of the Rockaway peninsula in Queens.

Williams had planned to start work on the $182-million Rockaway Delivery Lateral Project this month but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said in August that it would complete the project's final environmental impact statement on Feb. 28, 2014, with a 90-day federal authorization decision deadline of May 29.

Williams had anticipated already starting construction on the meter and regulator stations of the planned project, which will connect with its existing 10,200-mile Transco pipeline system.

The project involves building a 26-in. lateral pipeline about 2.9 miles off the coast and 0.3 mile onshore under Jacob Riis Park to Floyd Bennett Field in Queens. It includes building the meter and regulator stations inside one of the historic hangar buildings at Floyd Bennett Field and restoring the facade to that structure. A separate Transco project, also awaiting FERC approval, involves modifying existing compressor facilities in Delta, Pa.; Princeton, N.J.; and Old Bridge, N.J.

FERC's deadline will affect Williams' building schedule plan for the meter stations but will not affect the pipeline's November 2014 in-service date, says Chris Stockton, a Williams spokesman.