Just ahead of a rainy weekend, officials cut the ribbon on a new green infrastructure playground at P.S. 146X Edward Collins, an elementary school in the Bronx serving students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The celebration brought together New York City’s water utility, a national land conservation nonprofit, the agency that builds the city’s schools, and the Bronx’s top elected official — all gathered around a schoolyard designed to do double duty as both play space and stormwater infrastructure.
The event was announced in a post from Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, who retweeted a message from NYC Water noting that the ribbon-cutting happened “ahead of the weekend’s rain,” alongside the Trust for Public Land, the NYC School Construction Authority, and Gibson herself, according to a post shared via Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson
. P.S. 146X sits at 968 Cauldwell Avenue, according to
ps146x.org
, which also lists Ronald Laurent as the school’s principal.
How the Playground Is Meant to Fight Flooding
A Department of Environmental Protection search-result snippet indicates that green infrastructure elements built into the playground’s construction are expected to capture approximately 2.5 million gallons of stormwater each year, though the full project description behind that figure was not available. Green infrastructure of this kind is designed to manage stormwater onsite and keep it out of the sewer system altogether, according to bronxriver.org. Typical features can include bioswales, green roofs, rain gardens, enhanced tree pits, rain barrels, and permeable pavement, the same source notes.
The stakes for that kind of capacity are significant citywide. Every year, roughly 27 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater flow into New York City’s waterways through combined sewer overflows, which happen when the city’s combined sewer system becomes overloaded during and after heavy rain, per bronxriver.org. Beyond flood control, green infrastructure can also add neighborhood green space, restore habitat, filter pollutants naturally, sequester carbon, and cool down city blocks, the organization adds.
Part of a Growing Citywide Push
P.S. 146X’s new playground joins a broader effort that has reshaped schoolyards across the five boroughs. The Trust for Public Land says it has helped transform more than 180 public schoolyards from asphalt lots since 1996, adding over 150 acres of playground space, and that these green-infrastructure features reduce storm runoff that can flood streets and overwhelm sewer systems, according to tpl.org. By 2021, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said it had already constructed 23 green playgrounds with the Trust for Public Land, with another 40 in development at the time, as reported by Norwood News.
Other Bronx schoolyards built under the same program offer a sense of scale. A green playground at P.S. 306/M.S. 331 was designed to capture approximately two million gallons of stormwater annually and help reduce flooding, per Norwood News’s 2021 coverage, and was planned as a $2.2 million project expected to open in fall 2024, built to serve more than 42,000 residents within a 10-minute walk and open to the community during non-school hours. Separately, a 1.2-acre playground at the School of Science and Applied Learning, CS 300, was designed to capture up to 700,000 gallons of stormwater runoff each year, at a total cost of just over $1 million — including $730,000 for construction and $333,000 for design, community engagement, and environmental education, according to tpl.org’s reporting on that project.
What Comes Next for the Schoolyard
The NYC Playgrounds Program more broadly has been described as capturing around 500,000 gallons of stormwater per playground during large rain events, according to schoolyardstewardship.org. Green schoolyards under the program are intended to create a place for the community to enjoy while also managing stormwater and preventing flooding, per the seed post shared by Gibson’s account. Details on P.S. 146X’s specific operating hours, community access rules, and funding partners beyond those named at the ribbon-cutting were not available in the available records.
