Development of Major Ferry Homeport in Dense Urban Waterfront

The NYC Ferry system, which re-established its first route in 2017, has experienced astronomical growth and exceeded ridership expectations. This resulted in a rapid, large-scale expansion of the ferry fleet, and is necessitating creation of a second, larger, and more robust operation and maintenance facility: Homeport II. Designated to be located in Atlantic Basin, Brooklyn, the upgrades to the site will create a homeport that will provide the operator with the ability to provide nightly maintenance of the NYC Ferry vessels as well as a place to shelter the vessels while not in use. The original Homeport I facility, put into service in 2018, offers lessons learned and a source of valuable operator feedback to be incorporated into the design of the new facility. This paper provides a case study of creation of a major homeport facility in a dense urban environment. Key design strategies addressing limited site area, resilience requirements, and lessons learned from the original Homeport I project will be presented. At the time of the conference, the construction of Homeport II will be approximately 50% complete.