Release ·
We are raising our design flood elevation to 18.5 feet
New sea-level projections moved the numbers our buildings were designed around. We are moving our buildings to match: the Raise program, $41.6 million over three years.
From today our design flood elevation, the level above which we place every critical system in both buildings, is 18.5 feet NAVD 88. It was 15.0 feet at SEC1 and 17.0 feet at NWK1.
When we designed SEC1 in 2014 we took the base flood elevation, added the sea-level rise then projected for 2070 on a moderate scenario, and added freeboard. The projections have since moved, and so have the terms our customers sign. We now design to the high scenario for 2100, on the basis that a building we put up today should be safe for its whole life and not only for its first lease.
NWK1 already clears the new figure by almost a foot. SEC1 does not: its halls, at 16.8 feet, are now 1.7 feet below our own standard. Over the next three years the Raise program will move SEC1’s switchgear and UPS up to a new electrical gallery at 21.0 feet, lift its generators onto plinths at 20.0 feet, build a barrier around the whole site to 19.5 feet, and add a new level above the existing halls, which will be the first of what we are calling the Dry Floor. The program will cost $41.6 million.
“We spent eight years telling people SEC1 was above the flood line,” said Elena Castellano, our chief engineer. “It was, by the line we drew. We have drawn a new one, and we are going to meet it.”
Cordgrass Data · Secaucus, New Jersey · May 17, 2022