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05 Jul 2004  -  United States

Blast-proof Subway plan

The MTA is looking into a plan to secure subway tunnels with a military-style, lightweight material that would contain the force of a bomb blast, The Post has learned.

The high-tech material — similar to that used on the outside of the Space Shuttle and military airplanes — would involve putting a flexible "composite sheeting" on the inside of subway tunnels.

Carbon-fiber composites would contain the force of the explosion and reduce the impact of flying objects such as shards of glass and bits of metal.

"It's like vinyl flooring," said Chuck King, a spokesman for Jacobs Engineering, which is working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Since 9/11, the MTA has been seeking to reinforce its tunnels — particularly the eight concrete tunnels that run under the East River, officials said.

The agency has enlisted the help of four consulting firms — Jacobs, Parsons Brinckherhoff, SAIC and URS — to assess weaknesses and implement long-term anti-terrorism measures.

King said the MTA was presently evaluating Jacobs' recommendations.

"We're just talking," King said of the MTA.

At $8 a pound, carbon-fiber composites cost 20 times more than steel.

The material also has been used on buildings and other structures in California to withstand massive earthquakes.

The MTA has spent $100 million to develop a security program.

The funds are from a pool of $591 million awarded to the MTA last year by the state and federal governments.

The feds, who contributed $142 million, set a 2006 deadline for a portion of the funds to be used.

Some of the security improvements already in effect include more MTA police officers at Grand Central Terminal, shoebox-size sensors at various stations to monitor the air, and surveillance cameras in tunnels.

Other measures include:

* Putting together "Hercules teams" — units of heavily armed cops — to regularly patrol subway stations.

* Deploying cops to stations in Jewish and Muslim neighborhoods like Cobble Hill and Borough Park in Brooklyn.

* Equipping cops on subway duty with a lightweight gas mask that can withstand exposure to a contaminated area in a biochemical attack.

* Patrolling Grand Central and Penn stations with National Guard soldiers and State Police — equipped with bomb-sniffing dogs.

By BRAD HAMILTON and CLEMENTE LISI