Life Support Technologies’ (LST)
group Hyperbaric Engineering Division has supported manned pressure interventions
and provided medical / technical staffing to help complete four train tunnels
planned by New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) connecting the
Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Sunnyside Yards in Queens, N.Y with Grand Central
Station in Manhattan, NY.
Two, 22-foot diameter, 500-ton Tunnel
Boring Machines (TBM) manufactured by Herrenknecht of Schwanau, Germany were used
to bore the four tunnels in a project that began in August 2011.
Glenn Butler, founder and CEO of LST
said: "This tunnel project was an honor to work on and allowed LST to put
our Life Safety experience to work. We’re a local, New York-based company formed
in 1987 to support marine heavy construction and underwater diving operations
internationally. Since then, we have focused on developing safer and more
effective ways to support humans working in extreme environments, whether it is
the vacuum of space, or in depths of 1,000 feet and more of sea water. This
project was an ideal environment for us to combine our unique experience in
providing hospital-based medical services, NASA astronaut training services and
our deep-sea engineering expertise to optimize safety and maximize human
performance in this very hazardous construction environment."
The MTA-funded project is under the
direction of Granite-Traylor-Frontier (GTF) Joint Venture, a group of
international tunneling experts. LST is a sub-contractor to GTF and provides
Hamilton / Kenyon DCAP Decompression Tables, and board-certified hyperbaric physicians,
Para-Medics, and technicians to operate the special hyperbaric chambers in each
TBM and provide medical support under hyperbaric conditions.
The forward section of the TBM is
pressurized with air to counterbalance the water table and prevent the forward
section of the tunnel from flooding. Tunnel workers, nicknamed "Sandhogs,"
must go into the pressurized section of the TBM in order to periodically change
the special cutting tools that wear out or get damaged as the machine advances
through rock and earth. "We completed 382 Manned Interventions over a
total of 71 days and at pressures up to 34 PSIG [Pounds per Square Inch, Gauge]
which is the equivalent of 76 Feet of Sea Water, without any decompression
incidence," said Butler. "This success is a testament to GTF, the
Sandhogs, our LST team and the DCAP decompression tables. It is an honor to be
selected to provide such specialized support services on this historic project.”
For further information, see:
About the Life Support Technologies Group (LST)
The Life Support Technologies Group (LST) is a Tarrytown,
NY-based medical and life-support engineering company specializing in Advanced
Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Services to hospitals in the NY, NJ, CT region. LST has been in business for 20 years and
currently provides services to 9 hospitals.
Glenn
Butler, CEO
Life
Support Technologies Group
(914)
333-8412
