Friday, November 2, 2012

Army Engineers prepare to extract 10 million gallons of water from NYC car tunnels

Sandy flooded the network of underground and car tunnels in New York City with up to 400 million gallons of water.

On Thursday, the U.S. military started the process of shipping in heavy equipment such as generators and water pumps from across the country, starting the arduous process.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin with the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the main underwater passageway for vehicles going between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Using high-head submersible pumps and centrifugal pumps, the corps intends to drain 10 million gallons from the tunnel.

According to Corps spokesman Jim Pogue, once the equipment is in place, it will take about a day to get the water out and pump it back to sea. The high-head pump goes below the surface, extracting water down from the top, while the pump itself may be submerged as far down as 100 feet, said Pogue. The centrifugal pump is more familiar, using a hose "similar to a straw," he said, to suck the water out.

Once that tunnel is drained, the team will move on to Holland and Lincoln car tunnels and others. Some equipment has arrived but more is yet to come. So far, they have received 12 eight-inch pumps and 13 six-inch pumps, which the Navy is helping the Corps to install. The Coast Guard is sending 16 pumps and the Pentagon is sending 120 "high-flow water pumps."

The water will need to by pumped out slowly, with the pumps being repositioned as the water recedes.

"These large tunnels take large capacities of water," says Curry Graham, a Corps official in Washington D.C. "We can't de-water quickly because that could cause damage to the structure."

For more of the Wired story: wired.com

image0 (9K)

image0 (9K)

image0 (9K)

More Newswire stories

Report: Maritime-related pollution drops in Puget Sound region

Report: Distribution center automation on the rise

Damco appoints new global head of technology

NYK connects to shore-side power at Port of Oakland

The Port Handbook



Click to browse past stories on these topics:

Logistics

Ports & Infrastructure

Economic Outlook

Environmental Impact

Technology