The Inflatable, 35,000-Gallon Subway Plug

I think this is the best forum for this, as the geniuses at Homeland Security have finally come up with a way to quickly and safely plug a subway tunnel, to keep water leaks, gases, or fire from getting in (or out, depending on your preference.

Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technol ... =pm_latest


Although I'm pretty sure The 3 Stooges and I Love Lucy came up with this first

Rbts Stn wrote:I think this is the best forum for this, as the geniuses at Homeland Security have finally come up with a way to quickly and safely plug a subway tunnel, to keep water leaks, gases, or fire from getting in (or out, depending on your preference.

Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technol ... =pm_latest


Although I'm pretty sure The 3 Stooges and I Love Lucy came up with this first

I'm not sure if "quickly" is an accurate word. Currently, it take take up to 30 minutes to inflate. You'd need serious lead time for it to be useful!

Does anyone know why this wasn't used in the recent hurricane?

Les

If you deployed something like that in the NY area, you would have flooded the train stations. Flooding the tunnel is a better choice.

Wasn't something similar to this used to 'plug' the NYP East River tunnels?

The water filled dam LIRR used at west side yard worked fine till water level rose higher then the dam.
Water entered the East river tubes thru the vent shafts and the Emergency exit stairwells,
remember the water levels were much higher than the historical surge levels.