The next time a massive storm rolls into a U.S. metropolis, massive inflatable tubes could protect the city's subway system from floodwater.
The tubes are made out of a strong material that looks like interwoven seat belts, according to Dave Cadogan, director of engineering for International Latex Corporation Dover. When it inflates, the giant tube will rub against subway walls like an inner lining, and the pressure from the air inside of it will prevent water from bursting through the concrete.
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What Cadogan's company has built may sound goofy, but it could prevent another Hurricane Sandy from causing billions of dollars in subway damage.
"New York City has procedures that it's looking into and developing so that when another Hurricane Sandy comes up the East coast, they will shut down the transit system a certain amount of time ahead of when the storm hits," Cadogan told Mashable.
The tubes — or plugs, as they're also known — are designed to inflate automatically.
"It resides in a tunnel at a certain location, and when there is an event sensed, it can inflate automatically and be in position," Cadogan said. "No one has to be there to take care of it."
While that's usually true, it's not always possible, Cadogan added. Underground roads such as the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, which flooded during Hurricane Sandy, don't have an ideal spot to place a tube in preparation for a storm. In that case, someone will have to lay it out before the rain starts. But the city should be able to predict flood levels and therefore determine what needs to be plugged well before the conditions become dangerous.
The tube doesn't need to be in a specific position to inflate properly, according to Cadogan. It will naturally take the shape of a tunnel once it has been given time to puff up, which shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. However, the Delaware-based organization is currently working on a tube that can fill up in less than half that time.
As subway systems are revamped, this technology may become obsolete, Cadogan said. Better tunnels will be more equipped to handle floods. But until that day, he believes these inflatable tubes are a city's best bet for preventing years of subway delays and reconstruction that in the aftermath of storms such as Sandy.
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Image: Flickr, Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York