Emergency.Blog

PATH Tunnels Seen as Fragile in Bomb Attack

22 Dec 2006

NYT: PATH Tunnels Seen as Fragile in Bomb Attack

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and WILLIAM NEUMAN

NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY: An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says that the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River are more vulnerable to a bomb attack than previously thought, and that a relatively small amount of high explosives could cause significant flooding of the rail system within hours.

The four PATH tubes lie in the Hudson riverbed, not in bedrock.

The analysis, based on work by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, revises some critical aspects of an assessment of the system’s vulnerability that was presented to the agency last spring. It makes clear that the tunnels — four tubes of varying design and sturdiness that stretch across the Hudson riverbed — are structurally more fragile than first thought.

A draft summary of the most recent analysis was given to The New York Times by a government official who was troubled by what the official felt was a lack of action in response to the analysis, which the official said the Port Authority got about three weeks ago. The official said the latest analysis indicates that it would take only six minutes for one of the PATH tubes to flood if a significant but not necessarily very large bomb were detonated.

Get the whole story: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/nyregion/22security.html (may require registration)