30 subway cars dropped off Cape May coast

by Brian T. Murray and Wayne Woolley/The Star-Ledger Monday August 25, 2008,

With a tremendous splash and a profound thud, 30 old subway cars were dropped into the ocean off the coast of Cape May this morning, enlarging the nation's most extensive artificial reef system.



State officials say the 18-ton cars -- stripped of their windows, wheels, axles and flooring -- will soon become home to a variety of ocean species.

"They provide a very good habitat for marine life," said Hugh Carberry, the state Department of Environmental Protection's reef coordinator.
Noah Addis/The Star-LedgerWorkers dump New York City subway cars into the ocean off of Cape May on Monday. After a five year moratorium, New Jersey will continue to use subway cars to build up artificial reefs, which provide habitat and homes to marine life.
Today's operation marked the second since March, when the state lifted a controversial five-year moratorium on the use of subway cars for artificial reefs.

In the first drop, 44 cars were sunk off Atlantic City. By 2011, some 600 of the decommissioned people-movers will have been deployed along the Jersey Shore.
There they will join military tanks, tug boats, telephone cable, concrete blocks and other items that have been dropped since 1984 to establish habitats for fish and other sea creatures that would otherwise steer clear of the open and turbulent Atlantic Ocean floor. Reef programs are underway worldwide to maintain, if not restore, marine life.
The subway cars -- each 60 feet long, 10 feet wide and 11 feet high -- were donated by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The state DEP imposed the moratorium in 2003 over concerns about the cars' asbestos content and about how long they would last. At the time, the cars offered up by New York City were made of carbon-grade steel. The 600 cars to be dropped through 2011 contain no asbestos and are made of stainless steel, which lasts longer in the ocean. Carberry said the newer cars could last up to 25 years.

Fifty cars were to be dropped from a barge today, but the operation had to be halted after a hose burst on the enormous forklift used to carry the steel tubes to the vessel's edge. The remaining 20 cars will be dropped in the next several months, said Darlene Yuhas, a DEP spokeswoman.