Integral Project Wins Big Apple Brownfield Award

The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), Integral Consulting Inc. (Integral), and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) have received a “Big Apple Brownfield Award” for excellence in climate change and resiliency on the Springfield Gardens/Linden Place project in Queens, New York.  The award was presented by the New York City Brownfield Partnership. Integral principal Kevin McCarty and geologist Stacey Ng were responsible for multiple components on this large-scale drainage improvement, flood prevention, resiliency, and wetland restoration project.

Designed to mitigate chronic flooding and improve storm and climate resiliency, the project incorporated removal and cleanup of a large automobile scrapyard, dredging of Springfield Lake, management and treatment of dredge material, excavation and expansion of a large drainage basin, expansion of habitat, and reconstruction of the entire Springfield area storm drainage system.

As part of the project, Integral wrote, negotiated, and managed multiple beneficial use determination applications with NYSDEC for more than 45,000 cubic yards of material to be beneficially reused on multiple City- and State-funded projects. Material included hydraulic dredge material from a lake, excavated fill from a newly created tidal wetland, and material from a drainage channel widening effort. Approximately 12,000 cubic yards of the dredge material was approved for reuse by a landscape design firm, as cover soil for a “rain garden” at the State Superfund environmental restoration project Bush Terminal Landfill, and as wetland habitat subbase material in the Springfield Gardens Park. In addition, approximately 35,000 cubic yards of excavated construction fill was approved for importation to another City project (Linden Place Extension) where it was used as an engineering layer for geotechnical surcharge and to raise grades for a new roadbed.

The reuse efforts saved public funding on multiple fronts including disposal cost as well as purchase of imported material to the roadway and other projects.  In addition, this effort reduced the carbon footprint of multiple projects by drastically reducing the total mileage required for large truck hauling for several thousand truck trips.  An estimated 180,000 gallons of diesel fuel alone was saved from this effort equaling nearly 4 million pounds of carbon emissions from being generated over a short several month construction cycle.

For more information on this project, contact Kevin McCarty at kmccarty@integral-corp.com.