New York Steam Explosion Serves Warning About Aging United States Infrastructure

With a blast that made skyscrapers tremble, an 83-year-old steam pipe sent a powerful message that the miles of tubes, wires and iron that keep New York and other U.S. cities going are getting older and perhaps more strained.The steam conduit that exploded beneath a Manhattan street at the height of rush hour Wednesday, just a block from Grand Central Terminal, was part of a system that began providing energy to city buildings in 1882.Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the line to blow, but some experts said the age of the city's infrastructure might have been a factor. Pipes do not last forever."This may be a warning sign for this very old network of pipe that we have," said Anil Agrawal, a professor of civil engineering at the City College of New York. "We should not be looking at this incident as an isolated one."New York City's steam system, he added, is only part of the problem.A number of American cities are entering a middle age of sorts, and the infrastructure propping them up is showing signs of strain. Thousands of miles of underground water and sewage pipes are nearing the end of their expected life. Electrical systems, operating with components that are decades old, have been groaning to handle record power demand. Parts of New York were plunged into darkness for a week last summer when a series of power cables failed in Queens, and much of the Northeast was blacked out when power transmission systems failed across several states in 2003.In New York and Boston, aging sidewalk utility panels were blamed for delivering electric shocks to pedestrians and pets in wet weather. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates it will take $1.6 trillion (1.2 trillion) over the next five years to get the nation's roads, bridges, dams, water systems and airports into good condition. Cities and utilities are spending billions to replace their old parts, but fixing the problems is rarely easy. In New York City, the subterranean landscape is a labyrinth of cables, tunnels and piping, often extending hundreds of feet down. Getting to all of those components can be difficult."The fact that all of this stuff is crowded together in a very small space can also make accidents worse," said Rae Zimmerman, director of the Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems at New York University. New York is home to the largest steam system in the world. Steam is pumped through more than 100 miles (160.9 kilometers) of mains and service pipes, providing service to customers such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. Consolidated Edison, the utility that operates the steam system, insisted its equipment is in good shape. The company said it is spending $20 million (14.5 million) this year on upgrades, and has been removing older cast-iron components, eliminating asbestos from manholes and installing improved joints less likely to fail."I don't think there is any reason to worry. I think that you see that these pipes generally perform fine," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in the aftermath of the blast, which injured dozens, some seriously. One woman died of a heart attack while trying to flee. Steam explosions in the city are rare, and have decreased in recent years. The last major explosion in New York, in 1989, killed three people. Smaller steam systems have also operated largely without mishap in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, although a pipe explosion near the White House badly injured two workers in 2004. Con Ed said it has an inspection program to look for potential problems. Buried steam mains like the one that exploded, however, are generally not inspected because doing so usually requires digging up the street, said Con Ed spokeswoman Joy Faber. That is something that should change immediately, said Agrawal. He said robotic probes are available that allow utilities to detect corrosion or damage to steam pipes from within, without having to dig them up."They have to start looking at the entire system," he said. "Imagine something like this exploding under Grand Central? Or under Broadway?