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posted by martyb on Sunday June 25 2017, @08:20AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-does-the-train-get-out? dept.

Commuting is tough enough on a normal workday without the added hassle of a flooded tunnel on your way to or from work. With that in mind, how do subway systems around the world deal with this natural threat?

The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has a solution in the form of a giant inflatable plug that will seal off subway tunnels and stop water from flowing throughout the subway system into stations and other subway lines.

"The tunnel plug is an innovative and groundbreaking technology that can protect subway tunnels from flooding," said John Fortune, Program Manager in S&T's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA).

Dubbed the Resilient Tunnel Plug (RTP), S&T, in conjunction with ILC Dover, the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and West Virginia University, demonstrated the inflatable device at a recent event held in Frederica, Delaware. The uninflated plug integrates seamlessly into a subway tunnel without impeding the flow of normal train traffic, but can be quickly inflated to stop water from rushing through the tunnel and remain inflated to withstand the incredible pressure of restrained floodwaters.

The image of the plug in TFA looks like the plug uses a lot of duct tape.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @04:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 25 2017, @04:06PM (#530898)

    Why is nobody slightly alarmed about this?

    The DHS (who, reading this site, is most often quoted along with the words incompetent and imbecile) designs an "underground inflatable something" and calls it "groundbreaking".

    Think! The DHS will start inflating this doodad. It will inflate. It will seal the tunnel. It will then keep inflating because they somehow can't shut it off, surprisingly. Groundbreaking indeed! Spectacularly so once the pressure decides to go upward, since that is the direction with the least counterpressure.

    My personal bet is that their secret development works are located all along California. Without them, the San Andreas fault would have closed up in 1957. They are secretly trying to rid the homeland of all of California at once!