In 2013, the Federal Transit Agency (FTA) announced the availability of $3 billion for resilience projects to protect transit assets against future disasters in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, which proved to be the single most destructive weather event in the history of New York City.
New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) decided to pursue a grant to fund new vessels for the Staten Island Ferry. As such, they needed technical support for their funding application for the FTA under this program.
How we helped
Steer focused its analysis modeling on the resiliency and economic benefits of purchasing new vessels for the Staten Island Ferry, as well as implementing flood protection measures on the related landside facilities.
To develop these benefits Steer modeled the potential disruptions posed by another storm of a similar severity to Hurricane Sandy, and calculated the benefits from the service redundancy that the new vessels would provide.
Successes and outcomes
Based largely on the demonstrated benefits of the proposed investments, the project was selected by FTA and NYCDOT was awarded $191.6 million for its new vessels, one of the largest grants made under the program.