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.
