Respecting the Meadowlands

Implementing resilient and environmentally sound flood-risk mitigation measures for New Jersey’s Meadowlands District

As the effects of climate change get more severe, more and more people are living in flood zones. In the devastating aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enacted the Rebuild by Design (RBD) Competition to promote development of innovative resilient projects. Working with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), we developed the RBD Meadowlands project — a real-time iterative study in balancing social, environmental and community benefits while realizing flood risk mitigation and increased resilience for communities located within 100-year floodplains.

Four elements of resiliency

Given the complexity of combined flood risks from both stormwater and tidal surge, we deployed a multi-disciplinary approach with the Meadowlands project to improve the region’s physical, ecological and economic resilience following Hurricane Sandy. The overall project area was in northeastern New Jersey within the Hackensack River watershed. There were four main elements to the project: the East Riser Ditch Pumping Station, East Riser Ditch Channel Improvements, Liberty Street Pumping Station and Force Main, and Parks/Open Space and Green Infrastructure.

Holistic floodplain solutions

Each element was planned and designed to ensure holistic, complete solutions are reached for affected communities — work that required a fully integrated team of engineers, urban planners, landscape architects, ecologists, environmental scientists and economists working in concert.

The East Riser Ditch Pumping Station conveys floodwater downstream of tide gates into Berry’s Creek to reduce impacts from flooding. The East Riser Ditch Channel Improvements includes dredging accumulated sediments from the ditch and increasing its conveyance capacity while upgrading or replacing three culverts — two that are road crossings and one that is a railroad bridge. The Liberty Street Pumping Station and Force Main reduces flooding to the Borough of Little Ferry by diverting stormwater around bottlenecks in the Losen Slote. Lastly, the Parks/Open Space and Green Infrastructure Program addresses flooding by installing rain gardens, vegetation and other green infrastructure such as a public park to absorb stormwater.

Greener communities

The expansive nature of the Meadowlands continues to have a huge positive impact on the surrounding communities and environments. Our approaches to diverting and absorbing stormwater from hurricanes or other major weather events eases worries of residents along and within the floodplain, improving quality of life and meeting our mission to deliver a better world.