Randall’s Island Salt Marsh & Shoreline Mitigation

True Environmental provides environmental monitoring, restoration design services, habitat mitigation planning, and regulatory/permitting support for the final segment of the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) power transmission project that will provide renewable energy to New York City. The project’s impact area traverses a portion of the Bronx Kill and an adjacent tidal wetland on Randall’s Island, previously designed and constructed by the team in the mid-2000s.

Our role in the project to date has involved development of a restoration design, from concepts through construction drawings, that includes a range of environmental restoration interventions along with potential public access opportunities along the Bronx Kill, and preparation of a post-construction site restoration and monitoring plan. The team performed baseline ecological monitoring of the marsh in summer 2023 and will continue to monitor for up to 5-years following completion of the project. Monitoring parameters (baseline and post-construction) include elevation profiles, permanent photo-stations, vegetation community structure, porewater salinity, soil characteristics, and the abundance of natant macrofauna (ribbed mussels and fiddler crabs). A wetland functional assessment was also performed during the baseline site assessment using the Evaluation for Planned Wetlands (EPW) methodology; this methodology will also be used to evaluate design stages and as a component of the post-restoration monitoring effort.

Anticipated future project tasks include finalizing construction drawings, performing construction oversight (beginning in Fall 2025), and performing post-construction ecological monitoring (beginning in summer 2026). We will also work with CHPE and NYC Parks to conduct a feasibility-level assessment of potential on- and off-site mitigation alternatives and continue to support the project’s regulatory/permitting needs throughout the construction and monitoring phases.