The Battery Coastal Resilience

Phase 1 open, Phase 2 to 2027 NYCEDC and NYC Parks The Battery's waterfront promenade

Rebuilding The Battery's deteriorating wharf promenade about five feet higher, designed for the sea levels projected for 2100. The northern and western two-thirds was finished in March 2026, and the mayor marked its completion in June; the southern and eastern third is closed for Phase 2, scheduled to run to June 2027.

$165M
first public estimate, Mar 2019
$200M
current estimate, Jun 2026, +21%
Dec 2024
completion promised at announcement
Jun 2027
current target, 2.5 years late

The Battery, 1928 and 1936

The Battery's waterfront long before this project: from the air after a snowstorm, and its fireboat house eight years later.

Aerial photograph of the Battery under snow in March 1928, its paths drawn in white, the round Aquarium in Castle Clinton at its western edge, piers on either side and Lower Manhattan's towers in haze behind
The Battery from the air after a snowstorm, March 10, 1928, with the Aquarium in Castle Clinton and the piers on either side.
The old fireboat house at the Battery in 1936, a two-story building with a lookout tower on a pier, the boat basin's granite walls and a moored boat in the foreground
The fireboat house at the Battery, 1936 (Berenice Abbott, NYPL).

The budget over time

0$63M$125M$188M$250M2020202220242026todayMar 2019: $165M · Announced in the citywide Lower Manhattan resiliency planMar 2021: $129M · Concept design unveiled; figure appears to cover construction onlySep 2022: $165M · City capital funding, per Rebuild by Design's ten-year updateJun 2023: $169M · Pre-construction budget baselineMay 2024: $200M · Groundbreaking figure, $31M over the baseline$165M$200M0$63M$125M$188M$250M2020202220242026todayMar 2019: $165M · Announced in the citywide Lower Manhattan resiliency planMar 2021: $129M · Concept design unveiled; figure appears to cover construction onlySep 2022: $165M · City capital funding, per Rebuild by Design's ten-year updateJun 2023: $169M · Pre-construction budget baselineMay 2024: $200M · Groundbreaking figure, $31M over the baseline$165M$200M0$63M$125M$188M$250M20202025todayMar 2019: $165M · Announced in the citywide Lower Manhattan resiliency planMar 2021: $129M · Concept design unveiled; figure appears to cover construction onlySep 2022: $165M · City capital funding, per Rebuild by Design's ten-year updateJun 2023: $169M · Pre-construction budget baselineMay 2024: $200M · Groundbreaking figure, $31M over the baseline$165M$200M

Each point is a public statement of the project's estimated cost, from the agency or from official documents and press coverage of them.

View this data as a table
DateEstimateContextSource
Mar 2019 $165,000,000 Announced in the citywide Lower Manhattan resiliency plan preventionweb.net
Mar 2021 $129,000,000 Concept design unveiled; figure appears to cover construction only stantec.com
Sep 2022 $165,000,000 City capital funding, per Rebuild by Design's ten-year update rebuildbydesign.org
Jun 2023 $169,000,000 Pre-construction budget baseline ebroadsheet.com
May 2024 $200,000,000 Groundbreaking figure, $31M over the baseline nyc.gov

The schedule

202220232024202520262027todayAnnouncedCurrentAnnounced: Oct 2022 to Dec 2024Oct 2022Dec 2024Current estimate: Jan 2024 to Jun 2027Jan 2024est. Jun 2027Promised at announcementlate byPhase 1 reopensPhase 1 reopens promised: Dec 2024Phase 1 reopens delivered: Mar 2026, about 1.5 years late+1.5 yrs202220232024202520262027todayAnnouncedCurrentAnnounced: Oct 2022 to Dec 2024Oct 2022Dec 2024Current estimate: Jan 2024 to Jun 2027Jan 2024est. Jun 2027Promised at announcementlate byPhase 1 reopensPhase 1 reopens promised: Dec 2024Phase 1 reopens delivered: Mar 2026, about 1.5 years late+1.5 yrs202220242026todayAnnounced Oct 2022 to Dec 2024Announced: Oct 2022 to Dec 2024Current Jan 2024 to est. Jun 2027Current: Jan 2024 to est. Jun 2027Promised at announcementlate byPhase 1 reopens+1.5 yrsPhase 1 reopens promised: Dec 2024Phase 1 reopens delivered: Mar 2026, about 1.5 years late

The construction window announced when the project was unveiled, against the current public schedule. Below the bars, the features the project promised, each with the date promised at announcement and the date it actually arrived, if it has.

Promised versus delivered

What was promised

  • The wharf promenade rebuilt about five feet higher, to roughly 11 feet above mean sea level, designed for 2100 sea levels
  • Construction starting in late 2022 and finishing in winter 2024
  • Ferry service to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island maintained throughout construction
  • Materials moved by barge, cutting more than 2,000 truck trips and over half the embodied carbon
  • Phase 1 reopening by October 2025, per later construction commitments

What happened

  • keptPhase 1, the northern and western two-thirds of the wharf raised five feet, was complete in March 2026, according to the city's March 16 update to Community Board 1; the mayor announced its completion on June 8, 2026
  • keptBarge logistics delivered, with the promised cut in truck trips and embodied carbon
  • changedConstruction began in January 2024, when the Phase 1 fence went up, more than a year after the late-2022 start forecast in 2021; the groundbreaking ceremony followed on May 6, 2024
  • changedCost rose from the $169M pre-construction baseline to $200M
  • changedPhase 1 was finished in March 2026, about five months after the October 2025 target in the city's own schedule
  • pendingPhase 2, the southern and eastern third of the promenade, began in March 2026 and is scheduled to run to June 2027
  • changedThe new ferry-screening facility, which The Broadsheet reported was bought from a supplier in Germany and delayed Phase 1, went into service beside Castle Clinton on March 6, 2026. Screening stays on the waterfront by design: the city's project FAQ says it returns to the Castle Clinton area and calls moving it elsewhere a long-term goal of the Park Service and the city

A construction site before

The Battery in May 1973, photographed for the EPA's Documerica project.

Crowds on the Battery's waterfront in May 1973, a Circle Line boat loading at the pier behind them, a man reading on a bench and three women walking past a wire litter basket
The Battery's waterfront in May 1973.
Bundles of steel rebar laid out at a construction site on the east side of the Battery in May 1973, a truck and a crane by the fence and office buildings above
Rebar on the east side of the Battery, May 1973.

Friction and open questions

Disputes, community objections, and unresolved issues on the public record.

  • In March 2026 the National Park Service commandeered the newly reopened waterfront for ferry security operations, drawing criticism until it agreed to give back portions of the space.
    Phase One Done, The Broadsheet, Jun 2026
  • The project's public cost figures have shifted basis over the years, from $165M to $129M to $169M to $200M, making the true overrun hard to state precisely. We show every figure and its date.
    Phase One Done, The Broadsheet, Jun 2026
  • Unlike the BPCA projects, this project has no board record, and the city's own project pages are thin and stale: in October 2026 the main page still says Phase 1 'will conclude in 2025', its construction notices stop at February 2025 and its presentations at July 2024, and the program-level resources page holds only planning-era RFPs and memos. Quarterly newsletters are the one regular document; the eighth, in June 2026, announced Phase 1 complete. The record on this page is assembled from city presentations to Community Board 1, press releases, those newsletters, and reporting.
    The Battery Coastal Resilience, official LMCR project page

Sources