The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) recently released an update to its Climate Resilience Roadmap, a document that outlines the agency’s strategic priorities in mitigating the effects of extreme weather events and climate change on transit infrastructure.
“We are taking action to protect our infrastructure and the New Yorkers that rely on it from the impacts of climate change,” Jamie Torres-Springer, MTA construction & development president, said. “This roadmap update highlights the progress we’ve made even in the last eighteen months and lays out the path forward in partnership with the City of New York and other stakeholders.”
The document originally was released in April 2024 and included 10 goals and related strategies. It also outlined the need for increased partnership with the city of New York and identified nine interagency climate resilience actions between the city and the MTA including heavy rain, coastal flooding and extreme heat.
The update details the progress made since the original report was released, including more than $1.5 billion in funding to protect the subway system from flooding.
“Transit is the antidote to climate change, but the system can’t work well if it’s constantly getting pounded by severe storms and torrential rain,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said. “Working with Governor Hochul and the City, we must continue to harden our infrastructure to withstand the effects of increasingly extreme weather events.”