Rye News Release - NYSDEC Funding 

STATE ANNOUNCES RESILIENCY FUNDING TO REPLACE TWO BRIDGES IN THE CITY OF RYE

-A PORTION OF $21 MILLION IN FUNDING WILL BE USED TO REPLACE OAKLAND BEACH AVENUE AND PLAYLAND PARKWAY BRIDGES

RYE, NY (June 25, 2025) – The City is pleased to announce that New York State will provide $21 million in support of flood protection projects in Westchester County – including funding towards replacing the County-owned Oakland Beach Avenue and Playland Parkway Bridges over Blind Brook in the City of Rye. These bridges are to be replaced with larger spans funded under the Clean Air, Clean Water and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2024. The existing undersized bridges constrict flow and contribute to flooding along Blind Brook.

This enormous contribution to Rye’s flood resiliency is the result of advocacy begun in 2019, advocacy that has borne fruit with the great help of Governor Hochul, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Amanda Lefton, State Senator Shelley Mayer, Assemblyman Steve Otis and County Executive Ken Jenkins. The City of Rye has also had wonderful guidance and assistance within DEC from Regional Director Kelly Turturro, the retired Jim Tierney, and Tom Snow and colleagues in the Watershed Resiliency team.

The two bridges are among the structures highlighted for attention in DEC’s Blind Brook Flood Mitigation and Resilience Report of 2022. That report, done in cooperation with the City, largely focuses on manmade attributes of the brook in Rye Brook, Harrison and Rye that might be corrected to improve resiliency. (The City, separately, has secured half the funding to replace the Locust Avenue Bridge, also circled as an obstacle by the DEC report.) DEC has done a parallel study of Beaver Swamp Brook and provided Rye, Harrison and Mamaroneck with a similar list of potential improvements.

Mayor Josh Cohn said, “This wonderful news rewards years of effort. This funds and accelerates two major projects on our flooding to-do list. The new bridges will help protect Rye from increasing flood risk caused by greater watershed development and intensifying storms. We are enormously grateful to all our partners in State and County government for this huge help.”

In addition to the bridge replacements, the $21 million in funding will be used to uncover a channeled portion of the East Blind Brook in Rye Brook.