Salt Water Puts Subway 'in Jeopardy' - Wall Street Journal

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The storm that has wreaked havoc along the East Coast struck a historic blow to one of New York City's most vulnerable—and vital—points: the subway system.

A storm surge driven by the remains of Hurricane Sandy sent seawater pouring into at least six under-river tunnels of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's subway system Monday night, seriously threatening the goal to quickly restore vital mass-transit service in the city.

Before Hurricane Sandy made landfall Monday, the MTA worked to seal off openings that would allow corrosive salt water to sweep into the system and might incapacitate trains into the coming weekend.

After the flooding, its extent not yet fully measured, the threat of an extended shutdown loomed over a system that carries 5.2 million passengers a day and is essential to the city's economy.

The subway system is "in jeopardy," MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said Monday. "Our subway system and salt water do not mix."

Salt can eat at motors, metal fasteners and the electronic parts, some many decades old, that keep the system running. Salt water, and the deposits it leaves behind, degrades the relays that run the signal system, preventing train collisions.

Salt water also conducts electricity, which can exacerbate damage to signals if the system isn't powered down before a flood.

The Holland Tunnel was nearly deserted on Monday.

The MTA closed down its entire regional network of rails and buses on Sunday evening and expected it will remain dark at least until Wednesday morning.

Agency officials couldn't say how quickly the subway could be brought back into operation, but Mr. Lhota said in an interview that the flooding above ground appeared "serious."

Late Monday night, an MTA spokesman confirmed that floodwater had breached the subway system flooding all five tunnels between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as the Steinway Tube between Midtown and Queens. Railyards also flooded, and the A train bridge in the North Channel in Jamaica Bay was underwater after the surge.


The speed of recovery would depend on whether floodwaters damaged any of the rest of the 14 subway tunnels under the Harlem and East Rivers, where the system is most exposed to catastrophic flooding.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed late Monday that the Hoboken, Exchange Place and Newport stations on the PATH rail system had also flooded. It was not clear if floodwaters had reached the PATH tracks. MORE AT LINK