Avenue V: Modernizing a Pumping Station Without Losing Its Past

A century-old pumping station in Brooklyn needed significantly more capacity, fewer sewer overflows, and a restored historic façade. Toll supported NYC DEP with project-management advisory, monitoring, and change-impact review.

Client: New York City Department of Environmental Protection Location: Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York Toll services: Project management advisory; monitoring and reporting; change-impact assessment

Illustrative reconstruction of a historic urban pumping station. AI-generated; not a photograph of Avenue V or Toll personnel.

At the Avenue V Pumping Station in Gravesend, Brooklyn, modernization could not be measured by equipment capacity alone. The facility was also a century-old neighborhood landmark. Replacing and expanding critical wastewater infrastructure meant working within the constraints of an existing asset, historic architecture, multiple oversight bodies, and environmental performance requirements.

That combination made project monitoring and change control especially important: decisions about equipment, structures, and approvals had consequences beyond any single construction activity.

The project: more capacity, less overflow, preserved architecture

NYC DEP undertook an approximately $210 million rehabilitation of Avenue V, originally built between 1911 and 1916. The program upgraded pumping equipment and building systems, installed new force mains, and restored the building’s Beaux-Arts exterior after later additions had obscured much of its original character.

DEP reported that the upgraded station increased pumping capacity from 30 to 80 million gallons per day. Its modeling projected an 87% reduction in combined sewer overflows into Coney Island Creek. These are outcomes of the DEP capital project, not performance results attributable solely to Toll’s advisory services.

Where the complexity sat

The work had to connect underground conveyance improvements, pumping equipment, electrical and mechanical upgrades, and preservation approvals. Changes to one element could affect documentation, review sequences, or coordination elsewhere. The historic façade introduced an additional review path alongside the operational and environmental goals.

The challenge was therefore not simply to track what had been installed. It was to maintain a reliable view of changes, open decisions, stakeholder requirements, and project progress as the rehabilitation advanced.

Toll’s role

Toll International provided project management and delivery advisory services during a five-year professional-services engagement. Its recorded scope included monitoring and reporting, change-impact assessments, and advisory support for stakeholder and approval coordination.

That work supported the project team’s ability to assess modifications and organize decisions as technical, regulatory, and preservation requirements intersected. Toll’s role was advisory and controls-oriented; the plant design, construction, and overall performance outcomes belonged to the broader DEP-led program.

The lesson for operating infrastructure

For an aging public asset, the schedule and cost consequences of a change may extend beyond the immediate construction task. Equipment decisions, regulatory review, and existing-facility obligations have to be visible in the same management picture.

Avenue V illustrates why effective project controls begin with the interfaces: the dependencies between systems, approvals, and field execution that are easy to underestimate when viewed separately.

Project context sources

• NYC DEP — Avenue V rehabilitation announcement, March 24, 2015 (https://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/15-016pr.shtml)