Corps of Engineers making substantial progress with water removal mission

Published Nov. 3, 2012
NEW YORK -- A contractor hooks up an outflow line from a second pump dewatering the Hugh Carey Tunnel also known as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.  The Corps is has been tasked by FEMA to dewater the impacted infrastructure in the City (U.S. Army photo/Patrick Bloodgood)

NEW YORK -- A contractor hooks up an outflow line from a second pump dewatering the Hugh Carey Tunnel also known as the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The Corps is has been tasked by FEMA to dewater the impacted infrastructure in the City (U.S. Army photo/Patrick Bloodgood)

BROOKLYN, New York - As part of the national response framework for Hurricane Sandy, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) continues to work day and night with state and federal partners to remove water from New York City’s mass transportation system.

Roughly 600 million gallons of storm water infiltrated the nation’s busiest and oldest underground mass transit system and critical inter-city roads requiring a comprehensive and deliberate approach to dewatering. USACE has deployed technical experts and pumps in response to FEMA’s $20 million mission assignment to dewater the impacted infrastructure.

“Overall, we are making substantial progress in executing our mission and we‘ve started pumping at most of the critical locations throughout the City,” said Al Lee, Director of the Dewatering Task Force.

USACE is concentrating its pumping efforts at 10 vital locations and the sites are: Battery Park Exchange, Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Queens Midtown Tunnel, Rockaway Wastewater Treatment Plant, Passaic Valley Waste Water Treatment Plant, South Ferry Subway Station, (1, N, R Subway) Jersey City PATH Train to World Trade Center, World Trade Center, 14th Street Tunnel-Canarsie (L Subway), and the Montague Street Tunnel (N, R Subway).

To date, USACE has deployed 500 people to provide public works and engineering support to speed recovery from Hurricane Sandy.


Contact
Bob Anderson
347-370-4550
robert.t.anderson@usace.army.mil

Release no. 12-025