Mayor Eric Adams and city officials symbolically broke ground on Monday on a plan to raise part of Battery Park five feet to protect from storm surges and coastal flooding.

The city will be footing the $200 million bill.

“Every day we’re in a race against the next superstorm. Even in spite of the superstorms we’ve witnessed for the last few years, [we’ve seen] real storms and weather pattern changes that have impacted our infrastructure,” said Mayor Adams.

The mayor is also asking the federal government to create a regular source of funding for New York City’s coastal resiliency efforts. He says that every dollar that is invested in coastal infrastructure projects amounts to $6 in saved recovery costs. Officials say the part of Battery Park is just a piece of the resiliency puzzle.

“[We have] the FiDi Seaport Project and of course north of that we have the MCR, the Brooklyn Bridge Montgomery Street Project and then East Side Coastal Resilience. All of it forms a comprehensive multibillion-dollar effort that’s taken us already 12 years, it’s got several more years to go,” Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said.

Construction on the Battery Park project has started and it’s expected to be complete in 2026.