Passenger Trains > "PATH train repairs to cost $300M"

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 Last updated: Wednesday November 28, 2012, 7:16 AM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
The Record

The $300 million of damage Sandy inflicted on the PATH train system, revealed for the first time Tuesday, is the most extensive in the rail line’s history and will keep the Hoboken station closed “for weeks,” officials said.

And the daunting task of fixing it was on public display Tuesday, more than a month after Sandy, as Port Authority officials led reporters on a tour of a still-shuttered rail tunnel under Hoboken where floodwaters 8 feet deep destroyed critical electrical equipment, rusted tracks and scattered mud and debris. More than 50 trains also suffered damage.

More:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/Hoboken_PATH_station_weeks_from_reopening.html

A storm like this every few years means the area becomes an impossible place to live the present lifestyle.

Getting the navy involved to offer suggestions on making more of the system water tight is a great idea.

korotaj Wrote:
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> A storm like this every few years means the area
> becomes an impossible place to live the present
> lifestyle.

Not really. You just need a storm surge barrier between Far Rockaway and Sandy Hook, or at the Narrows. And also at Throg's Neck. Similar public works are in place protecting Amsterdam and London from the North Sea, and other major cities. A tiny barrier of this sort protected Stamford during Sandy.

This is not rocket science. Dutch engineers figured out seawalls many hundreds of years ago and have since successfully held back the North Sea.

abyler Wrote:
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> This is not rocket science. Dutch engineers
> figured out seawalls many hundreds of years ago
> and have since successfully held back the North
> Sea.

The Dutch had a bad breaching experience in the 1950s. They now design for the 10,000 year event (not the 50 year event or the 100 year event), and, with the current increase in the rate that the sea level is rising, they are now revisiting even this 10,000 year figure.

Ray

korotaj Wrote:
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> A storm like this every few years means the area
> becomes an impossible place to live the present
> lifestyle.


There has never been a storm like this in recorded history in the NYC area.

However I do think the Port Authority needs to rethink making their electrical connections and substatations as water tight as possible. Most of the system is below sea level as is.

CV the civil E in NJ

Three years ago the Weather Channel had a program called It could Happen Tomorrow and one eposide delt with a Hurricane hitting New york City. They were right on one what really happened.


Chris