New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Tweed New Haven flood barriers endure Sunday rainfall
WEST HAVEN — Barriers protecting the doors of Tweed New Haven Airport held up to their first test during Sunday's heavy rainfall, according to an airport official.
Tom Rafter, Tweed New Haven Airport Authority executive director, said new barriers — which he likened to “building a dam with building blocks” — kept the interior of the airport terminal dry, allowing five arriving planes and one departing plane to operate as planned during the rainstorm. In nearby Hamden, 3.41 inches of rainfall were recorded over a 24-hour period, according to the Community Collaborative's 24-hour precipitation map.
Rafter said the barriers, which were purchased and are operated by Avports, were installed around the spring or summer of this year, but Sunday's storm was the first time they were tested.
“It protects the building quite a bit,” he said.
The system is manually operated by the airport's operations team and was implemented on the departure terminal after the final departure of the day. The arrivals terminal is at a higher elevation and less prone to flooding. An airport spokesman said flights continued as expected into Monday morning and, of more than 850 flights since Sept. 3, only five have been diverted.
The barriers are part of what Rafter considers the airport's overall flooding mitigation system, including a retention system that collects floodwater on site to prevent runoff into the surrounding neighborhood. He said the airports intends for its next phase to be building terminals on stilts.