New York City initiated the first phase of its defense against rising sea levels—and monster hurricanes like Superstorm Sandy—this week with the awarding of a $631M design and construction contract for what NYC is calling a "sea level resiliency project" on the waterfront in Lower Manhattan.

The Battery Park City (BPC) Authority named Turner Construction and its subsidiary E.E. Cruz as the primary design-build team for the North and West Battery Park City Resiliency project, which is the lion's share of NYC's plan to erect a series of flood barriers around the southern tip of Manhattan.

The design-build team also will include specialists from two cities with hundreds of years of experience designing canals, levies and sea walls to protect against North Sea flooding: Arcadis, an Amsterdam-based design and engineering consultancy, and Bjark Ingels Group, architects from Copenhagen. Montreal-based general contractor WSP also is part of the team.