New York Metro needs urgent renovation

The water continues to run through the streets of Midtown Manhattan, leaking underground inlets, penetrating in the ventilation grates and inside the tunnels.

A year ago, Hurricane Sandy reached New York causing a massive storm of four meters, as the town had never seen. Nine of the 14 subway tunnels below the River were flooded and the subway service was shut down for a few days.

Experts say that the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has taken precautions in order to lessen the impact. Before the storm began, she withdrew the trains of the areas prone to flooding, the electrical signals present in the tunnels, which were inundated, and workers blocked with wood and sandbags metro entries subject to floods. Later, the water has been removed and replaced the electrical signals. According to the newspapers, in one week approximately 80% of subway service has been restored.

Klaus Jacob, climate scientist at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York and the most responsible for demonstrating how such flooding would affect the metropolitan city, stated that these preparations of the MTA allowed the city to gain a lot of time and save money on takeover of the system.

"Instead of the subway closure between one to 10 days, this could have been closed for at least three weeks, which would cost in the order of EUR 1 billion, corresponding to two and a half times the daily economic production of New York City," explained the responsible.

A 100-year flood

Klaus Jacob demonstrated the risks of extreme weather events and the way in which climate change may exacerbate them, having been involved in long-term sustainability plans and works with stakeholders such as the MTA, New Jersey Transit, among others.

Two years before the hurricane Sandy, the Governor of New York presented a report on how the State should adapt to climate change. This report anticipated the effect that a 100-year flood, with a probability of 100 to occur at any time, have the infrastructure of the city.

Stipulated that the majority of metro tunnels were flooded, probably in less than an hour and, if the 14 tunnels down the River were targeted by floods, would take about five days to remove the water.

Many of the predictions since report were frighteningly confirmed at the time of occurrence of Hurricane Sandy, said Klaus Jacob. Nevertheless, to have held warning reports and to develop strategies that minimize the impact of the flooding, the MTA warned a lengthy closure of the metro and a huge waste of money.

However, other transit operators were not so wary. According to Klaus Jacob, the New Jersey Transit did not withdraw his trains before the wave arrives, having lost much of the rolling stock. When the website Mashable questioned him about the losses, the NJ Transit refused to respond. According to the latter site will have lost about a quarter of its fleet which, a year later, was already operational.

There is no absence of danger

According to Klaus Jacob, according to the result provided for under the circumstances, the MTA preparations for Hurricane Sandy were admirable. However, the city does not spent money in deep changes of future transport infrastructure protection. This explains that the vulnerability is the same when the hurricane occurred.

The same States that, to make the necessary changes, it would take several years and the investment of millions of euros. For example, many of the subway tunnels with surface stations are located in areas with the possibility of flooding and water passes easily through the bars of ventilation, so these should be sealed and replaced by ventilation systems such as those that are used in tunnels below the river. According to Klaus Jacobs, the technology is available, everything depends on the policy.

Certainly recur Sandy storms and its effects become more severe as the level of the river rises. In the latter case, these problems cannot be solved with engineering solutions, but with retreat. According to Klaus Jacobs what these solutions do is buy us time.

Jacob Klaus also States that the issue lies in the fact that we haven't been made aware of the terms cost of climate change for the world.

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