"Frankenstorm"

Things are slowly improving here... had to drive about 15 miles north, get a truck, and come back to Newark to pick up stuff at the FedEx facility, and saw that some power's restored on the east side of town, north ward still looks blacked out, lots of traffic lights still inop, about 1/3 of the gas stations are open in the area. Near-chaos at the gas stations, with lots of people on foot swarming around with jerry cans. A lot of blackout areas still in Essex, Passaic, and Bergen counties. All rail transport around here is at a standstill.
As for NYC, they're imposing high-occupancy rules for all passenger vehicles entering Manhattan, and the BBT, Holland and Midtown tunnels are still closed, but a lot of subway service has been restored above midtown, I hear.
All three of the big hub airports are open, and some friends of mine are returning on a flight into KEWR today, on schedule... I'll be going to pick them up, and I'm glad it's only a couple of miles away.
 
redtail said:
We have five Tunnel Systems Controllers and one new trainee, however, three of my co-workers are stuck at home with no gas.:yikes:

Two of us here in the control room. I made the relief at noon but it looks like we won't be going home anytime soon! We've decided to work two tours back to back (16 hours) then stay in the hotel.

At least we have partial power back up here, so it's not all that bad. And they keep us fed:lol:.
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I'll bet they found a way to keep the toll-collection system working. :rolleyes2:

-Rich
 
redtail said:
We have five Tunnel Systems Controllers and one new trainee, however, three of my co-workers are stuck at home with no gas.:yikes:

Two of us here in the control room. I made the relief at noon but it looks like we won't be going home anytime soon! We've decided to work two tours back to back (16 hours) then stay in the hotel.

At least we have partial power back up here, so it's not all that bad. And they keep us fed:lol:.
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Thanks.
 
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RJM62 said:
I'll bet they found a way to keep the toll-collection system working. :rolleyes2:

-Rich
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On the NJTP, Lincoln and GWB yes but not here at the Holland. We're still closed to the public.

Army Corps of Engineers are here also. We need at least 2 high tension feeders in order to run two ventilation fans per zone (fire protection). Right now we only have one from PSE&G and I'm running one fan per zone.

We have a total of 84 fans in our four vent buildings. Two vent buildings on each side of the Hudson.
 
rottydaddy said:
Things are slowly improving here... had to drive about 15 miles north, get a truck, and come back to Newark to pick up stuff at the FedEx facility, and saw that some power's restored on the east side of town, north ward still looks blacked out, lots of traffic lights still inop, about 1/3 of the gas stations are open in the area. Near-chaos at the gas stations, with lots of people on foot swarming around with jerry cans. A lot of blackout areas still in Essex, Passaic, and Bergen counties. All rail transport around here is at a standstill.
As for NYC, they're imposing high-occupancy rules for all passenger vehicles entering Manhattan, and the BBT, Holland and Midtown tunnels are still closed, but a lot of subway service has been restored above midtown, I hear.
All three of the big hub airports are open, and some friends of mine are returning on a flight into KEWR today, on schedule... I'll be going to pick them up, and I'm glad it's only a couple of miles away.
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Yeah I took the Verrazano in today... 13 bucks:yikes:. Avoided the mess of going into Manhattan. The trip was a non-event until I got to Rt. 440 in Jersey City! but I gave myself two hours to get to work instead of the normal one hour:rolleyes:.

I think the Mid Town tunnel took a worse hit with flooding than we did. Much worst!
 
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RJM62 said:
I'll bet they found a way to keep the toll-collection system working. :rolleyes2:

-Rich
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Actually, you're technically correct:rofl:.

We have a dedicated emegency generator for the Tolls building so if we were open, collecting tolls and EZ-Pass systems would work as normal:yes:
 
They said around 8 million gallons of water in the Mid Town tunnel:hairraise:.

The news just showed the inside and the water was almost up to the ceiling!

Our maintenance workers used portable pumps to assist the pump rooms throughout the Holland, but we definitely didn't get that much flooding...WOW!
 
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redtail said:
We have five Tunnel Systems Controllers and one new trainee, however, three of my co-workers are stuck at home with no gas.:yikes:

Two of us here in the control room. I made the relief at noon but it looks like we won't be going home anytime soon! We've decided to work two tours back to back (16 hours) then stay in the hotel.

At least we have partial power back up here, so it's not all that bad. And they keep us fed:lol:.
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Ok.. I am curious..:yes:

What is a Tunnel Systems Controller ? Why 5 and a trainee for one tunnel?

Thanks in advance...
 
N801BH said:
Ok.. I am curious..:yes:

What is a Tunnel Systems Controller ? Why 5 and a trainee for one tunnel?

Thanks in advance...
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We are basically industrial electricians (IBEW Local #3) that used to maintain & repair the 480 VAC ventilation fans, High Voltage switchgear (13KV / 480V), Tunnel Traffic Control System lighting (TTCS), Tunnel wall lighting, Tolls equipment, overheight vehicle detection systems and alarms, etc.

As Controllers, we operate these systems from a central control room to maintain a smooth flow of traffic and keep the CO levels low. In other words...we don't get cold, wet and dirty anymore:D.

We have a 6 man rotating schedule. This is 24/7 365 day operation. The trainee is replacing a recent retiree.
 
redtail said:
We are basically industrial electricians (IBEW Local #3) that used to maintain & repair the 480 VAC ventilation fans, High Voltage switchgear (13KV / 480V), Tunnel Traffic Control System lighting (TTCS), Tunnel wall lighting, Tolls equipment, overheight vehicle detection systems and alarms, etc.

As Controllers, we operate these systems from a central control room to maintain a smooth flow of traffic and keep the CO levels low. In other words...we don't get cold, wet and dirty anymore:D.

We have a 6 man rotating schedule. This is 24/7 365 day operation. The trainee is replacing a recent retiree.
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I have two goddaughters who used to freak out every time we went through one of the tunnels when they were little. They worried about floods, implosions, the "air running out," terrorists, and whatever else they could think about to freak out over.

I used to tell them, "Don't worry about it. Everything's under control. The guy who runs the tunnel systems is a friend of mine. He'll keep an eye on things."

Now I can tell them that and not be lying. :)

-Rich
 
RJM62 said:
I have two goddaughters who used to freak out every time we went through one of the tunnels when they were little. They worried about floods, implosions, the "air running out," terrorists, and whatever else they could think about to freak out over.

I used to tell them, "Don't worry about it. Everything's under control. The guy who runs the tunnel systems is a friend of mine. He'll keep an eye on things."

Now I can tell them that and not be lying. :)

-Rich
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Thanks Rich, I appreciate that!:).
It's a mad house up here right now as we're restoring equipment and getting systems back online to open the south tube in the morning for buses only. Probably another couple of days (or more) before we're back to somewhat normal.

One of our most important duties up here is, patron safety! Our primary job is keeping the CO levels low (we have 7 zones per tunnel). We recently did away with the old paper CO recorders and have digital monitors.

Next is fire/smoke suppression. We have specific ventilation patterns for each zone of the tunnel. In the event of a vehicle fire (which is very rare these days), we setup the fans to pull the smoke AWAY from the cars that are at a standstill, and up through the ceiling vents. Then our Tunnel & Bridge agents go in and extinguish the fire.

I have to drill myself occasionally because we hardly ever get car/truck fires anymore! (which is great). When I took this position in 2000, we could count on getting a few car fires every year. Most of them were in the summer. I guess that's a testament to much better quality vehicles:yes:.

Here's a tip for your daughter. In the tunnel, on the catwalk, we have Patron Alarms & phones every several feet, as well as cameras. If you ever have a problem, climb up onto the catwalk (they removed the rail and catwalk car system), look on the tile wall for a push button/phone. The operations people at the comm desk will probably already have you on one of the monitors.

Also (very important), look for the red fluorescent wall lights in the tunnel. They are over the vent bldg evac-route doors. These doors lead into the ventilation building and there's a yellow painted pathway up and out to street level!

Yes these are for public use in the event of an emergency! The doors are alarmed and monitored with cameras. However, they are there to be used. Much better than trying to run out of the tunnel in a panic:nono:.
 
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Well, the next phase has begun... with much of the area blacked out still, a lot of gas gennies are being used, and car tanks have gotten low. The results are predictable...

Woke a few hours early this morning, sensing something was not quite right. Looked out my window to see a line of cars along the highway, stretching from the nearest gas station to the north to the nearest to the south (both 24-hour stations). That's about a mile. Saw a few lines when I was out and about yesterday, but nothing like this.
Only a little honking and yelling so far, though, which is good. The line hasn't really moved in the last hour, but only a few seem to have thought to shut off their engines. :rolleyes2: Many local police are tied up keeping order at gas stations and major intersections with no signals.

I'm glad I made the effort to find fuel for my car the day after the storm hit! The Mustang is not very efficient, but I only need it for a 30-mile RT for work, most of it highway, and not every day. I should be OK well into next week, but this situation could go on longer than that...
 
rottydaddy said:
Well, the next phase has begun... with much of the area blacked out still, a lot of gas gennies are being used, and car tanks have gotten low. The results are predictable...

Woke a few hours early this morning, sensing something was not quite right. Looked out my window to see a line of cars along the highway, stretching from the nearest gas station to the north to the nearest to the south (both 24-hour stations). That's about a mile. Saw a few lines when I was out and about yesterday, but nothing like this.
Only a little honking and yelling so far, though, which is good. The line hasn't really moved in the last hour, but only a few seem to have thought to shut off their engines. :rolleyes2: Many local police are tied up keeping order at gas stations and major intersections with no signals.

I'm glad I made the effort to find fuel for my car the day after the storm hit! The Mustang is not very efficient, but I only need it for a 30-mile RT for work, most of it highway, and not every day. I should be OK well into next week, but this situation could go on longer than that...
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Sounding like gas is one of the big issues.

Just heard that JFK is expecting to be dry (completely out if JET-A) by sometime today.

On a positive note, the Coast Guard opened the port of NY/NJ last night on a restricted basis - they are only bringing in a tankers/barges with refined fuel onboard
 
Army Corps of Engineers are still on the facility and our maintenance workers are still pumping water out of the tunnel! We took on much more water than I thought!!!

Still on partial power from PSE&G. Nothing from Con-Ed yet.
To make matters worse, we're in the process of a total upgrade of our 84 ventilation fans over several years, so we have some old manual controls and some new computer network controls.

Guess which ones failed?

Now we have electricians stationed at our four vent buildings to manually control the new fans. I can only operate the old ones from here:rolleyes2:.

These are 480VAC three phase motors on a 120VDC control circuit. When our department started this major upgrade project a few years ago, my co-workers and I, voiced our concern about a computer network only system! (with no redundancy:confused:)

Obviously our concerns fell on deaf ears:dunno:. I'll bet you someone is paying attention now!

Luckily for now, we're not ready to open back up. It sucks calling up the vent buildings and requesting what speed I want certain fans on!
 
Heh. Computers make everything better. Trust me. I make a good living fixing computers that are doing jobs a filing cabinet and a good secretary used to be better at. That system used to even work by flashlight when the power went out. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
Heh. Computers make everything better. Trust me. I make a good living fixing computers that are doing jobs a filing cabinet and a good secretary used to be better at. That system used to even work by flashlight when the power went out. ;)
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:rofl:

Yeah I was just talking to my supervisor. According to him, the problem isn't redundancy (we have two fiber optic networks). The problem is, the contractor is still tweaking the system and once we restored power, the various nodes failed (or something like that:dunno:). My computer/network knowledge isn't as good as my electrical knowledge (I dropped out of DeVry):rofl:

Bottom line is, when I got power back online, the old fan controls (120VDC) didn't fail me. They responded immediately to my speed selections. All the redundancy in the world is worthless if I have no control over the new fans due to software/hardware issues!

In fairness, the system is still under construction by the contractor and hasn't been fully turned over to us yet. And at the rate they're going, it'll be several more years before it is. I guess they're gonna milk this job forever:rolleyes:.
 
I'm still amazed at the engineering feat of Clifford Holland and crew! The black and white pictures of the workers during construction, are amazing!

http://www.panynj.gov/bridges-tunnels/holland-tunnel-history.html

One of the most significant challenges was how to ventilate the 1.6-mile tunnel. With the dawn of the automobile age, it was imperative to find a way to remove potentially dangerous automobile fumes. Singstad's solution was to design a circular tunnel with an automatic ventilation system. Four ventilation buildings, two on each side of the Hudson River, house 84 immense fans that provide a change of air every 90 seconds, keeping air quality well within established safety limits. This innovation made the Holland Tunnel the first mechanically ventilated underwater vehicular tunnel. The methods used to design and build it still form the basis for the construction of many underwater vehicular tunnels throughout the world.

In 1984, because of its valuable contribution to tunnel design and construction, the Holland Tunnel was designated a National Historic Civil and Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil and Mechanical Engineers. And in 1993, it was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
 
redtail said:
:rofl:

Yeah I was just talking to my supervisor. According to him, the problem isn't redundancy (we have two fiber optic networks). The problem is, the contractor is still tweaking the system and once we restored power, the various nodes failed (or something like that:dunno:). My computer/network knowledge isn't as good as my electrical knowledge (I dropped out of DeVry):rofl:

Bottom line is, when I got power back online, the old fan controls (120VDC) didn't fail me. They responded immediately to my speed selections. All the redundancy in the world is worthless if I have no control over the new fans due to software/hardware issues!

In fairness, the system is still under construction by the contractor and hasn't been fully turned over to us yet. And at the rate they're going, it'll be several more years before it is. I guess they're gonna milk this job forever:rolleyes:.
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Welcome to the City of New York....

You should see how fast the new toll lanes on the DC beltway got built when they are built, owned (99 year lease), and operated by a private company (who keeps the tolls). There's a downside to that (they were basically allowed to trample all over nearby homeowners & commuters, who paid a price), but it got done fast.
 
I'm guessing that the server that accepts online payments for one of my credit cards is in lower Mahhattan, because it's been stalled for half the day.

It's hard to imagine coping with what folks have to deal with there.
 
wsuffa said:
Welcome to the City of New York....

You should see how fast the new toll lanes on the DC beltway got built when they are built, owned (99 year lease), and operated by a private company (who keeps the tolls). There's a downside to that (they were basically allowed to trample all over nearby homeowners & commuters, who paid a price), but it got done fast.
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Not to get off topic but that reminds me of a Dr. Seuss cartoon I saw when I was a kid. I don't remember which one it was, or the details. The part that I never forgot (stuck with me all these years) is when the City was building a new major highway system and forced people out of their homes because they were in the way! Sad.

It's crazy how certain things from your childhood, stick with you forever!
 
There are some tasks that computers should not touch.

-Rich
 
Looks like Newark, at least, is almost completely back online...
I was walking in the Ironbound section last night looking for any BBQ place that might be open, and man, was it dark over there. They've been blacked out since the night of the storm- no streetlights, no nothin.' Just as I was getting used to the darkness,suddenly all the lights came on! I could hear whoops and hollers of relief and joy coming from inside the houses.
Haven't checked the gasoline situation yet, but I haven't seen any lines under my window since last night, so we'll see. At least the demand for fuel for generators will be almost eliminated.
 
rottydaddy said:
Looks like Newark, at least, is almost completely back online...
I was walking in the Ironbound section last night looking for any BBQ place that might be open, and man, was it dark over there. They've been blacked out since the night of the storm- no streetlights, no nothin.' Just as I was getting used to the darkness,suddenly all the lights came on! I could hear whoops and hollers of relief and joy coming from inside the houses.
Haven't checked the gasoline situation yet, but I haven't seen any lines under my window since last night, so we'll see. At least the demand for fuel for generators will be almost eliminated.
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That's great! Progress:). I see the state is doing even/odd plate number, fuel rationing. So even though I don't have to worry about that, I was curious about my vanity plate (all letters). The website said those types of plates with no numbers, go in the odd number catagory.
 
We have all three Con-Ed feeders back today and only two PSE&G, so we're not quite at 100% yet. Our crews are still pumping out water!!! and our electricians are still repairing equipment. We got our ACS network back online...yay!

Right now, I'm in the process of testing each fan, running them through all speeds paying close attention to their performance at top speed. We have 2, 4 & 6 speed fans. The 6 speed fans are the new ones.

I setup two way traffic in one tunnel but that's only for essential vehicles. This is the first time I've actually had to setup two way traffic! Unlike the Lincoln Tunnel's center tube, we don't normally run two way traffic in our two tubes. So it's an odd sight to see here. I think we'll probably go back to the normal setup before we open to the public.

When I woke up in my hotel room this morning, for a brief moment, I forgot what day it was:lol:. Looking forward to going home tomorrow night:yesnod:.
 
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Henning said:
Cool deal, when does it look like it will reopen?
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I would guess, Monday morning:dunno:. Just spoke to the manager a little while ago and he was checking on the status of our ventilation system.

We have a certain number of blowers & exhausters in each zone and we need a certain minimum for fire protection. So once the testing is complete, I'll give him my report.
 
Cool deal. What do you think the long term viability of the salt water swamped gear will be?
 
Henning said:
Cool deal. What do you think the long term viability of the salt water swamped gear will be?
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Luckily, our switchgear is in the vent buildings above tunnel level! So what was exposed is mostly cables, both high & low voltage. The high voltage cables are lead covered. I guess time will tell what damage the salt water did. We actually have more issues with our low voltage cables over the years!

I'm not sure how old the cables are or if they used salt water resistant cables. I'll have to check into that.
 
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Here's a shot from today of Elizabeth Field (0B8) on Fishers Island, NY. You can see how washed out the runways are right now.
 

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CAP is apparently flying the largest aerial photography mission ever ordered by various customers. I saw a note from a Michigan Wing pilot heading East, presumably with an aircraft from MIWG. His post was vague, OPSEC being relatively ingrained in folks after some major concerns about civilians posting crap they shouldn't have on Social Media when flying on the government dime, but probably not heavily necessary in this case. Everyone knows something like this is an "all hands on deck" in just about every government or pseudo-government entity for 1000 miles. (Saying you're working a disaster area is about as much of a leak as saying the sun came up this morning. Specifics are frowned upon, however.)

Good hunting to the crews. The Aerial Photo mission is a relatively new one in the grand scheme and history of things. I think sometimes the powers that be want a bit higher quality imagery, but the non-member-owned camera gear is older Nikons and there's a whopping two of them per Wing... it's very difficult to train a corps of volunteers on that small a cache of equipment. Member-owned gear is allowed on some missions, and not on others. Good photography is a skill that must be practiced, and most average qualified folks manage to get in five or six real practices a year, with maybe two funded? It's a tough specialist role to keep skills up on. Some folks are just born to do it, or are pro photographers in real-life. (My photos usually rate a solid "B" even with $1000 worth of personal photo gear. I make up for it in volume. Even a blind squirrel sometimes gets a nut.)

I suspect many of the photos we'll all see published will be from volunteers who've left home and work -- sometimes unpaid by employers -- and are helping gather the information the emergency managers need. (Colorado State Law includes provisions for a couple of weeks of "deployment" for various volunteer organizations, CAP included, but your employer doesn't have to pay you, just hold your job for you, similar to military deployment job protection in many States.)
 
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