In caverns deep below N.Y. streets, train terminal taking shape

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

US | Wed Nov 4, 2015 3:55pm EST

In caverns deep below N.Y. streets, train terminal taking shape

NEW YORK | BY JOSEPH AX

Fifteen stories beneath midtown Manhattan, hundreds of workers are slowly converting massive subterranean chambers into a new terminal for the Long Island Railroad, the United States' busiest commuter rail system.

Two enormous caverns, each several city blocks long, will house eight tracks and platforms, serving an estimated 162,000 customers a day, officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said during a tour of the planned station on Wednesday.

A $10.2 billion project, known as East Side Access, will divert some Long Island Railroad trains from their current terminus at overcrowded Pennsylvania Station on the West Side to Grand Central. It will shorten riders' commute to New York by 30 to 40 minutes a day, said Michael Horodniceanu, who heads up capital construction for the MTA.

"This is the largest transit project in the country," said Horodniceanu as he stood in what will eventually be a 350,000-square-foot (33,000-square-meter) passenger concourse.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/04/us-new-york-transportation-idUSKCN0ST2SK20151104

[msongs]

1. deep underground caverns suitable for filling with overflow from rising oceans? nt

[happyslug]

2. These are already below sea level, New York is built on Granite.

If sea levels would raise 7 meters (20 feet), Manhattan island would be barely affected, the same with long Island (Jersey City is another story). I use 7 meters, for that is what world wide sea levels would increase, if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would collapse. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been called the Godzilla of Global warming, it can go in any spring (roughly March through early April) when the Antarctic Ice Shelves are at their minimum. This is believed to have happened 120,000 years ago:

http://www.imaja.com/as/environment/can/journal/madhousecentury.html

In the August 1995 Scientific American, Christina Stock reported how "for a geologic nanosecond-a century, in other words-some 120,000 years ago, the earth underwent climatic havoc." New findings show that sea level records, imprinted in limestone of the Bahama Islands, rose 20 feet above that of today and then plunged to at least 30 feet below modern levels. These erratic 100 years came at the close of the last interglacial era, a time when the climate was somewhat similar to ours.

Please note if ALL of the ice in Greenland, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet AND the East Antarctic Ice Sheet would melt, world wide sea levels would rise 65 meter, which would flood Manhattan except for the area roughly between Madison Avenue and Seventh Avenue and 39th and 59th streets, With two "extension, one to Macys and the Penn Station (but the Penn Station itself is just outside that high spot, Penn Station floods at at 20 meter increase in sea level) and another to almost the UN Building, but the UN building itself is within the 7 meter increase in sea level area.

As to the area between Madison and Seventh Avenue and 29th and 59th street, you have ere Grand Central Terminal is located, St Patrick's Cathedral, so if that the only entrance into the tunnel, it would still be dry.

The Empire State building is just outside the above, but if sea levels are kept below 50 meters, it is on dry land.

This is also the area where The Chrysler Building is located. Penn Station is just OUTSIDE that high spot (Penn Station floods at at 20 meter increase in sea level).

The above program is a good program to see the affect of various increases in sea level. While the West Antarctic Ice Sheet can increase world wide sea level seven meters next March (or some March in the future), the 65 meter increase is NOT considered possible till 2100.

Please note at 65 Meters, most of Jersey, outside its north west corner, is under water, as is the entire City of Washington DC.

At 7 meters, the Washington Monument is under water (but NOT the Lincoln Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial is an island at 13 meters, but remains an Island till 30 meter.

The Pentagon is on the sea shore on three of its five sides in any 7 meter increase in sea level, but even at a 20 meter increase, is mostly above water (But over a third of it is below sea level at the 20 meter increase level).

The biggest factor at 65 meters, is that Memphis Tennessee becomes a sea port, as does Shreveport Texas, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery Alabama.

At Seven Meters, New Orleans creases to exists. Barton Rough, starts to be flooded at Seven meters, but parts survive till you have a 20 meter increase in sea level (and Baton Rouge is gone by 30 meters).

In many way, US refineries, which tend to be on the coast, so to be able to load and unload from tankers, will be flooded out if sea level rises 7 meters or 20 feet.

7 Meters is roughly 20 feet (the error rate in calculating the sea level will raise 7 meter or 20 feet, exceeds the difference in actual length between 20 feet or 7 meters, so both numbers can be used interchangeability, through technically 7 meters equal 22.9659 feet).

There are 328 "Energy Facilities" with 5 feet of the high tide mark in the US. Most are oil refineries, but I can NOT find a good source to confirm how many would be affected by a 20 feet increase in Sea Levels. Here is the source for the 328 Energy Facilities:

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/04/climate-change-sea-level-energy-oil-gas-nuclear

In many ways the weak point in world wide sea level increase are coastal refineries. In a 20 feet increase in sea levels, off shore platforms can adjust quickly, most float today and designed to take a 20 foot change in sea levels due to Storm Surges, but refineries do NOT adjust for storm surges, they just close down and then when the surge is gone, reopen. The problem is with a 20 foot increase in sea level, the water level will be permanent and the equipment will have to be moved to dry land further inland, or a wall to keep out the water has to be built around the refinery (Moving is cheaper and a permanent fix, the wall will be temporary at best). Under either effort, I see refineries being off line for two to three years, as the land is purchased and the refinery moved.

Given I do not see the Military cutting back its energy "needs", what oil will we have after we make sure Farmers get their oil (we do have to eat and almost all farmers today use oil in tractors NOT horses). Then ambulances for safety and then fire and then road maintenance (if pot holes are NOT fixed what is the advantage to giving oil to drivers before Maintenance of the road such drivers drive on?). Oil is till a heating fuel for millions of Americans, and keeping warm in winter should have priority over a trip to the 7-11.

Once you think about the problems with a massive reduction in oil supplies do to the loss of oil refineries, the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would be the worse disaster in recorded history (They have been some massive volcanic eruptions in the last 2000 years. Some of these eruptions have affected people worldwide, but the real bad ones were all pre Roman Empire and Classical Greece and thus "pre recorded history&quot .