MTA makes $500 million investment in Coney Island Yard 14 years after Superstorm Sandy

Fourteen years after Superstorm Sandy crippled public transit citywide, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it invested upwards of $7 billion to protect the system from future storms. 

Resiliency upgrades included a major $500 million overhaul at Coney Island Yard. The 100-acre yard, one of the largest and most critical facilities in the MTA system, was inundated with saltwater when Sandy struck the New York area in October 2012, damaging infrastructure and disrupting operations.

"There was about two feet of water in the yard and saltwater and copper cables don't go well together," said Robert Laga, senior vice president of MTA Construction and Development.

Tens of millions of gallons of storm surge brought operations to a standstill. "It was a big Herculean effort to try and get the system back up and running," he said during a rare tour of the sprawling facility.

For Abby Jordan, a lifelong Brighton Beach resident who was a student at Hunter College when Sandy hit, the storm exposed the stark differences between coastal communities and neighborhoods farther inland.

"It really became a tale of two cities," Jordan said. 

Jordan recalls traveling from her devastated neighborhood into Manhattan in the aftermath of the storm.

"Coastal communities really were impacted, and many other communities that were inland didn't face as much devastation," she said. "The trauma of constant emergency cleanup operations, transformer fires, and flooded buildings highlighted the inequities." 

At the sprawling Coney Island Yard, the MTA has since undertaken extensive flood protection and infrastructure improvements intended to limit damage during future coastal storms.

A massive flood wall now surrounds the property. 

"We have a concrete wall that's reinforced. And then in the event of a storm, we have a flood door which rolls over to that area and seals the yard shut. There are about nine or ten gates here that we have to protect," Laga said.

Parts of the wall extend deep underground, to prevent seepage from below.

"Sixty-foot sheets, 35, 40 feet below grade," Laga said during a drive around the perimeter. "So there could be an ocean around this yard. Water will not get in there."

Another major component of the project is an elevated bridge stretching approximately 4,000 feet across critical sections of the yard. It carries cables that were previously routed underground and vulnerable to flooding.

"Power cables, third rail cables, return cables, communication cables, signal cables all run on this bridge," Laga said.

The yard also has about 20,000 feet of drainage designed to move rainwater toward Coney Island Creek while preventing water from flowing back into the facility.

During Sandy, the creek overflowed and connected with storm surge coming from the ocean. The MTA also reinforced the railroad bridge that crosses the waterway, which was repeatedly hit with debris during the storm.

Laga said the storm forced the agency to reconsider the risks posed by rising seas and increasingly severe flooding.

"It was a wake-up call to the MTA," he said. "When the subway system started, 100 plus years ago, nobody anticipated storm sea level rise, coastal events, or flash flooding."

For Jordan, the experience helped shape her career in climate education and advocacy. Now, she is a climate education program manager at the National Wildlife Federation.

"It changed everything," she said. "It put me on the path to not only understanding the climate science, environmental science, but the policies that need to be enacted to help communities really plan for a climate-resilient future."

The now-completed work at Coney Island Yard is part of MTA's plan to adapt its systems to flooding threats, intended to protect critical equipment and keep the system operating when the next major storm hits.

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