Living Breakwaters
Living Breakwaters is an ecological and social resiliency project located off the South Shore of Staten Island. The project’s three primary goals are to reduce coastal risk, create and restore essential marine habitat, and build social resilience through the design and construction of new breakwater structures. BOP’s role in this project is to increase the number and concentration of breeding oysters, to build oyster reef habitat within the structure of the breakwater system, and to inform and educate local community members and students about the importance of this work and how they can participate.
INSTALLED
Construction of breakwaters began 2021-2024
Oysters to be installed (pending permit) between 2023-2025
NYC BOROUGH
Staten Island
WATERWAY
Raritan Bay
FUNDING
U.S. Housing & Urban Development
New York State — administered by the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR)
Project PARTNERS
MFS Engineers
Prudent Engineering
Ramboll
SeArc
WSP
Weeks Marine
SCAPE (Lead Design Firm)
AKRF
Arcadis
Baird
COWI
LOT-EK
PRESS COVERAGE
“Living Breakwaters represents years of teamwork—research, shore walks, oyster pilots, hydrodynamic modeling and community planning meetings. So many people over so many years have provided valuable input. It’s inspiring to see this model of coastal blue-green infrastructure and community protection now being realized in Raritan Bay.”
— Kate Orff, SCAPE founder and Billion Oyster Project board member