Tunnels are a key part of our automotive infrastructure. They take us underground, under lakes, or under rivers, and get us where we’re going. They can be a little claustrophobic at times, or foreboding, but they’re usually safe. You could be forgiven for freaking out, however, if you were driving through when water suddenly started pouring out of the ceiling.
That’s precisely what happened in New York on Wednesday. Commuters saw water coming out of the roof of the tunnel at a significant rate. In video shared by WhatIsNewYork on Twitter, water can be seen coming out of multiple vents and pouring on to vehicles and the roadway below.
Despite the distressing situation, it took some time before the tunnel was closed. Drivers recorded videos showing the surprising amount of water that was entering the tunnel with traffic still passing through as normal.
Everyone’s worst nightmare #whatisnewyork pic.twitter.com/uizTjnUteg
— WhatIsNewYork (@whatisny) September 4, 2024
Naturally, it’s easy to understand why this would be concerning. Tunnels have limited access for entry and escape, and in the case of the Queens-Midtown tunnel, it passes beneath the East River. The fear of being trapped in a flooding underground tunnel may have felt very real to some at the time.
As covered by NBC New York, the leak was caused by drilling work undertaken by a contractor working for the city on the East River Esplanade. They accidentally drilled a small hole into the tunnel’s outer casing at approximately 12:30 P.M. according to a spokesperson for the city. The hole measured approximately 2.5 inches in diameter, which sent water spewing into the south tube via the tunnel’s ventilation ducts.
This is supposedly the hole that was drilled into the top of the Midtown Tunnel which caused chaos during yesterdays PM commute #whatisnewyork pic.twitter.com/MgVAS0GZf5
— WhatIsNewYork (@whatisny) September 6, 2024
Thankfully, at 1:30 P.M., both tubes of the Queens-Midtown tunnel were closed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The leak was dealt with before the water got anywhere near a dangerous level, and no injuries were reported. In true New York fashion, approximately an hour and a half later, traffic was once again flowing through the north tube. Getting the south tube open took a while longer, but all lanes across the whole tunnel were opened again by 6 P.M., though heavy traffic continued long into the night due to the closure.
MTA officials stated that the leak had been temporarily plugged, with interim repairs to take place on Wednesday night. A further permanent fix is slated to take some time longer. Photos and video posted to Twitter by WhatIsNewYork purport to show the leak, along with a jury-rigged wooden plug that has been hammered into the hole. New York City Mayor Eric Adams also visited to the site, posting in the evening that the tunnel had been reopened to traffic traveling in both directions. [Ed Note: It’s impressive Mayor Adams made it all the way over from Jersey that fast… – MH]
GOOD NEWS: Both tunnels are now back open to east/west directions of travel. There will be some residual delays as traffic gets moving in the area. Please be patient. https://t.co/Ejhfa2HGRg
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) September 4, 2024
This story is a good reminder to think about where you’re digging before you start. Even more so if it’s your job and you’ve got the kind of equipment that can punch holes in city tunnels. Thankfully, this situation didn’t end badly, but it surely gave a few people the jitters when the water started coming down.
Image credits: NYCMayor via Twitter
The East River? Oh, that was just Kramer swimming…don’t mind him
Firstly, the whole was not small at all. 2.5 inches, that is about 6.5 centimetres in real money; that’s huge!
Secondly, that the tunnel was closed is a fail, not a win; the hole should have been plugged way before the tunnel needed to be closed.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams also visited to the site
Thank goodness. The politicians are here, everything’s under control now.
I really want to listen in on the meeting when the contractor’s representatives try to explain themselves to the city government. I also want to know how much they (or their liability insurer) are on the hook for this clown show.
Unless the NYC version of call before you dig messed up and told them to drill in the wrong spot, it has happened before.
This needs flexseal.gif
Also, love the WhatIsNewYork Insta feed, they always have some interesting and/or funny stuff
I just looked at their feed, and you are correct. And I noticed that everyone I know who lived In NYC already follows the account.
You call that a leak? Chicago circa 1992 would like to have a word with you.
https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-stories/downtown-disasters/a-comedy-of-errors-how-a-small-leak-became-the-great-loop-flood-of-1992
First thing I thought of, too.
Free car wash. Fuhgeddaboudit!
Is the statement “jury-rigged” or “jerry-rigged”? I have used the latter for the better part of 40 years of my life…
Jury. The term is derived from sailors, who referred to improper emergency replacement masts (typically using smaller spars than normal, or cannibalizing spares from other masts) as “jury topmasts”, for example. A boat with rigging like this is “jury-rigged”.
Well I’ll be… learn something new every day (almost).
I thought it was Jerry (or Gerry) Rigged. I had read it was from WWII, when Gerry (slang for Germans?) was really using whatever scraps available to keep the equipment functioning by the end of the conflict.
I’m with you. Merriam-Webster 1st citation of jury- in 1788, 1st citation of jerry- in 1959.
So jury is correct, and then jerry crept in since it also fits.
My wife is a descriptivist, I’m a prescriptivist – can’t wait to tell her about this and have a discussion which will bore our kids to tears.
[sign with shovel held threateningly] WE DON’T DIAL 811
This just reinforces my fears first initiated by repeated viewings of The Dirty Dozen.
I used to work with tunnel safety and evacuation solutions for 10 years. Here in Sweden, we are building an 11 mile freeway tunnel under Stockholm. We have emergency exits every 100m throughout the tunnel, making it pretty safe in terms of evacuation.
In contrast, check out e.g. the 15 mile Laerdal tunnel in Norway, with zero emergency exits. Don’t want to end up trapped in the middle of that one behind a burning vehicle.
With exits every 100m that’s more a underground road than a tunnel.
Where are you supposed to put emergency exits in a tunnel going under a miles wide body of water?
I think he may have meant that the emergency exits were for people, not their vehicles. I can picture periscope-esque columns of escape hatchery in river crossings, even if they would never get built for their cost.
I get that, (although it does have actual exits, it’s not an 11 mile straight shot it’s an 11 mile network of tunnels)
But my point still stands, periscope escape tubes would be a massive navigation hazard that defeats the point of tunneling under the whole river
Put them outside the channel? Mark them with buoys? It ‘leaves the center unguarded’…
Yeah, I am not saying it is easy, more a thought process to imagine what could be.
It will be container ships taking these out left and right. They can barely keep them straight to get under a bridge span without hitting the piers
Typically they dig a third tunnel in between the traffic tunnels and the emergency exits lead to the third tunnel.
I think that’s more helpful to keep people from being trapped by a collision in the tunnel, than to protect them from a water leak or serious fire. In the event of a fire I suppose it’d depend on whether the tunnels have enough ventilation to allow sufficient air in and let smoke out.
In the Stockholm tunnel, we do not have a third tunnel as it would be way too expensive. We have two tunnels separating traffic. In case of emergency in one tunnel, evacuation is into the other. Of course this creates other issues that needs to be solved when it comes to quickly communicating with road users in that tunnel, shutting off the lane etc. so that evacuating people can safely access that tunnel.
That’s the case here in Sweden as well. Solution is to have separate tunnels for traffic in each direction. Where needed, emergency exit leads over to the parallel tunnel tube.
Will take a leaky tunnel anyday over some rando taking a leak in my subway car.
That takes a .38 kind of plugging to remedy.
Nah, it’s NYC, just swear a ridiculous amount and move to another car.
You are Bernie Goetz and I claim my five pounds.
You’re supposed to do that between the cars, jeez!
One day, as I was leaving for work, I noticed water coming up out of the ground between my house and my neighbor.
My wife called the water company, and they came out promptly to fix it. However, in the process, they cut the gas line.
The water repair crew called the gas company, and they came out promptly to fix it. However, in the process, they cut the cable.
We called the cable company, and they came out a day later, all but accused us of cutting our own cable, laid a temporary cable across my entire front yard, including my driveway, and returned a week and a half later to bury it.
Call before you dig people.
When a contractor was installing buried fiberoptic cables in our neighborhood, they drilled through a gas line. Half the fire trucks in the entire county showed up. This was despite multiple previous surveys and markings by utility locating crews. The county issued a stop work order and the job wasn’t completed until nearly a year later.
Sylvester Stallone has dealt with this before….
And way better than Viggo Mortensen handled it
Daylight holds up as a thriller, tbh. Decent way to kill 1h54m with some popcorn and a beverage.
Also Ed Note about how remarkable was for Adams to show up that fast for the photo op, what with all the Feds all over his inner circle. I got a crisp $100 that says he won’t finish his clearly only term.
Lol, your lips to God’s ears.
I’d take Banks over Fuckin’ Carranza every day.
But then I’d take herpes over either of them.
ps: fuck de Blasio
I have a hundo that says he is elected to his second. I realize that isn’t quite the anti-statement you made, but with two years left, it sort of amounts to the same thing.
Nah. He is not that skilled at being corrupt, managed to piss off both the bad guys and the good people.
So, is it a bet?
I take crypto.
Eth is a little more accessible, so we can do that.
Am I hearing it is a bet?
New York used to be New Amsterdam. You’d think they could have found a Dutch boy descendent to stick a finger in the hole.
Why they changed it, I can’t say.
People just liked it better that way.
I have a 45 rpm of The Four Lads singing this song in 1953. Betting you know They Might Be Giants’ version from the 90s.
Ah, yes. One of those little black CDs from the before times. I still have a few of those, too.
It could be argued that Tiny Toon Adventures changed my life by introducing me to that band. And I’m just now learning it’s a cover!
The Dutch won the last of several Anglo-Dutch Wars in the mid-17th C. As part of the negotiated settlement the Dutch gave the English (note: not British) New Amsterdam, the Duke of York was involved in it somehow
I hear Anthony Weiner is looking for a job…
Gov. Spitzer lost his job for sticking into things too.
Underrated comment
2.5″ is a mighty beefy finger. Now is it coincidence that they also have an article about a beefy burger mascot proving his merits. Match made…
https://www.theautopian.com/big-boy-gets-head-ripped-apart-by-fire-hydrant-holds-onto-cheeseburger-becomes-fast-food-mascot-god/
I’m sure he’s strong enough to shove his burger up that hole… it could work.
His *finger*, yeah…
I duplicated Rad, so I am removing my comment.