Effort underway to create top-secret underground map across NYC: report

The creation of an exclusive underground map of the Big Apple is reportedly in the works, which officials claim could curb millions in overruns on construction projects and also save lives.

The centralized, high-tech digital blueprint would help workers navigate the city’s thorny subsurface terrain, including a wild maze of water and gas pipes and electrical lines, top city officials told Gothamist Monday.

Crews that currently dig up different streets and sidewalks can deal with unexpected discoveries that stall projects and can lead to millions in added costs, argued Thomas Wynne, deputy commissioner for the city’s Design and Construction Department.

The new map would help avoid project delays and cost overruns, officials said. Getty Images

While the map is being trumpeted as critically important, only certain members of city government will be privy to it — for a limited time, Steinberg told Gothamist.

With the new map, a city employee with the proper approvals would request information from different partners for a specific project that the map would then visualize in 3D, according to the report.

The data would disappear, however, when it’s no longer needed or clearance ends.

That’s because city officials are so afraid the map could end up in the hands of bad actors — who could conceivably target underground infrastructure in some kind of attack.

“Security concerns are not only legitimate, but inform the entire design of the project,” Steinberg told the publication.

“We have an elaborate project architecture because there’s so much paranoia around storing all this data in a static environment.”

The new plan could also boost response time for first responders during an emergency, according to the outlet.

The map would be top, secret, according to a Monday report. EPA

“Our own emergency response professionals describe scenarios where they’re layering paper maps on the hoods of cars at the site of an emergency,” said Dan Steinberg, who is the director of the Mayor’s Office of Operation, which is leading the map’s creation.

“That to me, encapsulates the problem. More can go wrong when you’re working in this archaic way.”

The effort to put together a wide-ranging map would require help from different private entities like Con Edison, Nation Grid and MTA — and is being paid for with a $10 million federal grant, the outlet reported.

The map is expected to be unveiled at the start of 2028, according to Gothamist.

The Post has sought comment from city officials.