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Infrastructure Seminar Looks at NYC Storm Surge Barriers Print E-mail
Storm Surge Barrier Seminar An international array of engineers and scientists gathered at the 2009 Infrastructure Group Seminar, "Against the Deluge: Storm Surge Barriers to Protect New York City," held at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University on March 30-31. The objective of the seminar was to begin to develop the scientific and engineering information base needed to evaluate storm surge barrier concepts and perhaps point the way to their further development.
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Met Section to Sponsor Seminar on Storm Surge Barriers Print E-mail
Delta Works in the Netherlands With global warming and the accelerated rise in sea level, New York City is becoming increasingly at risk from severe coastal flooding during intense nor'easters or hurricanes. Moveable barriers placed at narrow points in the waterways surrounding New York City can protect the inner city and nearby New Jersey from the storm surges that could otherwise cause the type of devastating damage that we recently witnessed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
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Modern Caverns in Gotham Print E-mail
On January 29, 2008, three speakers from Parsons Brinckerhoff discussed some of the significant geotechnical and design challenges associated with the construction of large rock caverns for four major rail and subway infrastructure projects in Manhattan. The technical lecture was held at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and focused on the underground caverns for the East Side Access, No. 7 Subway Extension, Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel (Access to the Region's Core), and Second Avenue Subway projects.

Mala Ciancia first provided an overview of geologic history in the New York City area and discussed how Manhattan has a tremendous variety of rock types for such a small area—including Mica Schist, Granite, Pegmatite, Gneiss, Marble, Serpentinite, Mylonite, Amphibolite, and Talc Schist—primarily due to its unique location at the junction of three physiographic provinces: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, New England Upland, and Piedmont Province. She emphasized how understanding the site geology is critical to the planning of any underground project and that the investigation for caverns is an iterative process that includes a review of existing data, a field testing program, and a laboratory testing program. She also spoke about faults, foliation, fracturing, and compared the key geotechnical parameters between tunnels oriented in a north-south direction versus those oriented in an east-west direction.

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