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MTA's Tunnel Vision
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 6, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 6, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Yesterday, the Daily News reported that the MTA had considered installing floodgates, in case a tunnel wall breaks. You know, somewhere there's a movie producer thinking "Let's do something that's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three meets Poseiden!" Amtrak has apparently upgraded old floodgates at Penn Station, and while the MTA won't get specific, the director of interagency preparedness Lewis Schiliro said, "To the extent that we can make the tunnels more secure, both structurally and from an evacuation standpoint, we've gone ahead and done that, or are in the process of doing that. We're not going to have a lack of imagination or a lack of concern cause additional risk to the riding public."
That's great because imagination eventually turns out to be part of maybe-terrorist plots. There are additional quotes confirming that the MTA's underwater tunnels are already pretty sturdy, and apparently the MTA has approved on $17 million to improve "subway tunnel defenses" - no robots, but there will be dirt and concrete as a barricade!
Now that they are thinking about tunnel flooding, what about regular station and platform flooding?
Tagged
daily news
MTA
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Pelham One Two Three
Penn
penn station
subway
terrorist
The Taking
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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