When Hurricane Sandy struck New
York City a few weeks ago, seven of the 14 under-river subway tunnels flooded
as a result of the storm surge, halting operation of some subway lines for more
than a week. One possible future safeguard for this kind of disaster: huge,
inflatable tunnel plugs. At the University of West Virginia, researchers
working with the Department of Homeland Security are testing a massive balloon
made of high strength material that could potentially be used to plug subway
tunnels during future calamities--be they weather- or
terrorism-related--keeping water out and important infrastructure functional.
Catch a video of this technology inflating over at the NYT.
Timely post since we just watched the benefit concert last night on AMC.
Very interesting. I feel so bad for the people in New York and New Jersey. So sad.
ReplyDeleteKen I read an article the other day about the plans to shore up the city's environmental defenses and this was one of the ideas in the article. Amazing what we can think of when we need to. Too bad we wait so long to let ourselves shine.
ReplyDeleteamazing how big some folks can think!!!
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