NYC Should have a Flood Barrier

[sfpcjock]

Only a few billion dollars. About a week in Afghanistan.

Imagine, if you will, the effect of salt water filling the subways, The Holland Tunnel, The Lincoln Tunnel, all the ground floors of skyscrapers filling with salt water.

We're talking $10s of billions in damage to New York.

[elleng]

1. Sure: New Jersey!!!

:rofl:

[smokey nj]

2. Not funny.

[sfpcjock]

3. :)

[smokey nj]

6. Pardon me for not laughing at that stupid joke, but I'm in Hudson County, right across the river

from Manhattan and we are in just as much danger as NYC. You know what's on the other side of the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels? Hudson County. Hudson county is the 6th most populated county in the country, just behind the 5 boroughs of NYC. The city of Hoboken is in danger of being completely flooded as is the Jersey City waterfront.

[sfpcjock]

11. Not at all.

I think I meant ;)wink and I wasn't laughing at him. Thx.

[Dorian Gray]

9. Oh come on

it's a little funny. (Disclaimer: I'm a native New Jerseyite who has lived in NY for over ten years now.)

[smokey nj]

10. Not funny at all.

[elleng]

12. (Sorry). Daughter lives there,

she (and I in MD) 'suffering' along w the rest of us East-Coasters.

[sfpcjock]

4. ...and the NYC Flood Barrier Project would create lots and lots of Blue-state jobs.

Which is a huge no-go. LOL

Bloomy is talking on TV nus now. He knows Manhattan is going to be a huge flood plain tomorrow.

[underpants]

5. How often do they need a flood barrier?

seriously this is like someone suggesting a few days ago that they should build a bridge to Ocracoke island.

[sfpcjock]

7. Frankly, it's about every 5 years now.

And, we need the jobs and technology.

[taterguy]

8. It was a tunnel, damnit!

[Xithras]

13. A billion? That might get it started.

There is an existing proposal to build surge barriers to protect NYC. It would require THREE barriers (one each at Verrazano Narrows, Arthur Kill, and Throgs Neck). The low elevations of the surrounding land at those sites would also require the construction of some fairly long levees, to prevent the surge from simply running around the barriers. Even at that point, large sections of Brooklyn and queens would still be destroyed by major surges, because both are vulnerable to surges coming in from Jamaica Bay. The only way to protect those areas would be to build a large levee along the southern edge of Long Island, that would destroy thousands of homes and cost billions all by itself.

It can be done, but it wouldn't be fast, easy, or cheap. And there's no way it could be done for a billion dollars. The Thames barrier to protect London cost a billion US dollars, and it was a relatively simple project, in comparison.

Flood barriers are cheap and easy when the surrounding land rises steeply away, (as happens in river valleys like the Thames) or in cities like Venice that are only trying to stop tidal surges of a few feet, but much of New York sits only a few feet above sea level, and any barriers would need to stop huge storm surges from hurricanes.

[sfpcjock]

14. Very interesting! Thanks.

I know what you mean about the Thames Barrier: the Amsterdam barrier could be more comparable to what we need. I saw video of that a while back and it's kind of an engineering wonder, too. In Holland they do care about preserving the country and avoiding the floods of earlier in the century. I think the last non-hurricane flooding storm in NYC was around '93 or something?

We're talking $5 billion or more for the whole deal. Consider that the GS Building itself cost over $2 billion, there is literally hundreds of billions of property and industry around Manhattan. It's actually logical to do this to preserve the entire economy of the U.S.. In 20-30 years we will have to regulate the world's CO2, but to get us there we need this barrier and all it would bring New York and New Jersey :)

Let's get started, say you?

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In 1987, when the Eastern Scheldt inlet in Zeeland was about to be closed off, environmentalists and fishermen insisted upon a flood barrier that could let in some of the tidal current and would only be shut during storms. The mussels and oysters of Yerseke are world famous.

This is the New Waterway to Rotterdam, I think, which is a river solution.


All of the above: http://tippinthescales.wordpress.com/2007/03/17/does-size-matter/

And the Thames Barrier which was used 2 months after it was completed:

And there's the financial heart of our nation:

[War Horse]

15. Yes!

And then team up with the Netherlands and the UK to build one for Bangladesh! :)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. Arguably there are better investments in NYC

A dispassionate risk/reward should be done.

[Cassandra]

17. Perhaps bankers instead of...

sandbags.

[sfpcjock]

18. lmao. Here's the whole Hudson Flood Gate Project plan

http://thegreenophobe.blogspot.com/2010/11/saving-nyc-11-billion-flood-barriers.html"> Saving NYC: $11 Billion Flood Barriers

always cheaper than a new Subway system ;)