Design and Construction Report
Construction on one of New York City’s largest green infrastructure projects is expected to begin in Fall 2026 after the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) awarded a $149.5 million construction contract and secured a key easement agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), city officials announced Wednesday.
The project will restore Tibbetts Brook to the surface in a process known as “daylighting,” bringing the historic waterway above ground for more than a mile through the Bronx before reconnecting it to the Harlem River. Officials said the effort will reduce flooding, improve water quality, and create new public green space while easing pressure on the borough’s sewer system.
“We’re proud to mark these important milestones on the Tibbetts Brook daylighting project, DEP’s most ambitious green infrastructure project and I am grateful to the local community, NYC Parks and the MTA for their partnership,” said DEP Commissioner Lisa F. Garcia. “By restoring the brook above ground we’re reducing flooding and relieving pressure on our sewers, especially during heavy rainstorms, to create a cleaner, healthier Harlem River.”
The MTA recently finalized an easement agreement allowing the brook to pass through a new underground conduit beneath Metro-North Railroad property near West 232nd Street. That connection is essential to restoring the brook’s natural flow into the Harlem River while maintaining operations in the active rail yard above.
Without the agreement, officials said, the project could not move forward as designed.
The initiative will remove Tibbetts Brook from the city’s combined sewer system, freeing capacity in the Bronx network and reducing combined sewer overflows into the Harlem River by more than 215 million gallons annually. City officials also expect reduced energy use and emissions at the Wards Island Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility as less water is diverted for treatment.
“The Tibbetts Brook daylighting project will be a major victory for the City’s environmental infrastructure, adding critical new greenspace while bolstering the health of the Harlem River and alleviating flooding in the Bronx,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura. “We’re proud to collaborate with DEP on this initiative and grateful to the MTA for advancing a major step in this project that will allow work to start this fall.”
Community advocates have pushed for decades to restore the waterway, which was gradually buried and redirected into the sewer system in the early 20th century. Once flowing naturally from Yonkers through the Bronx into the Harlem River, Tibbetts Brook was fully enclosed by 1912 following earlier industrial alterations to the watershed.
“The Daylighting of Tibbetts Brook has been a dream of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality for the past 30 years,” said Karen Argenti of the Tibbetts Advisory Group. “This project turns a vacant garbage-strewn railroad into a natural area with water and green features. The environmental benefits and biodiversity will mitigate critical climate challenges and cool the surrounding area.”
The daylighted section will run from the former Mill Pond area to West 230th Street through a corridor once owned by CSX Transportation, which the city acquired in 2023 for $11.2 million. From there, the brook will transition into a subsurface conduit beneath MTA rail infrastructure before reaching the Harlem River.
Officials said the integrated design allows the project to restore natural hydrology while preserving critical transportation operations above ground.
The DEP said construction is expected to ramp up following the start date this fall, marking a major step in a broader city and state effort to improve the ecological health of New York City waterways and expand climate resilience infrastructure across the five boroughs.
