The MTA made a splash in northern Brooklyn when it filled the entrance of a subway station with several feet of water Wednesday to test out a new flood-proofing plan.
The Broadway station entrance in Williamsburg looked more like a kiddie pool than a transit hub for a few hours — due to a water blocking device, dubbed a “flex-gate” — which baffled straphangers.
“MTA explain yourself,” passerby Kaye Blegvad tweeted at the agency, along with a photo of the water-logged station.
The agency’s social media team first quipped, “We’re pivoting to submarines” — before explaining the test-run is part of a plan to combat climate change.
“But actually, we were testing a new ‘flex gate,’ which is a flood barrier that would allow us to seal off a subway entrance. We ‘test flood’ the entrance for four hours to make sure it was installed correctly, which it was!” it tweeted.
The agency later added, “We’re investing in capital projects around the system to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate,” according to Gothamist.
During major storms, MTA workers can unroll the gate and secure it against a metal lip, which runs along the edge of a subway stairwell opening, to keep water from rushing into the underground.
During Superstorm Sandy, subway stations and tunnels were damaged flood water, and agency is still trying to repair some of them.
It’s one in a series of steps city and state agencies are taking to try to protect flood-vulnerable neighborhoods across the five boroughs from the higher seas and more powerful storms brought on by climate change.
The City Council last week signed off on a $1.5 billion project to help protect the Lower East Side by raising East River Park by eight feet, which will help shield the neighborhood from the nearby East River.
The MTA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
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