U.S. Firm May Have Answer To CN Tower Ice Concerns
Posted March 7, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
You know that old expression ‘be careful what you wish for?’
It may be very apt with the warmer weather we’re finally going to get at the tail end of the week.
The increase in temperature could bring an increase in melting ice – and that could create yet another problem with the CN Tower and shards of the frozen water falling off onto downtown streets.
Both the Gardiner and King St. West were shut down Monday after high winds and falling ice brought danger to motorists and pedestrians alike.
Since then, Tower officials have taken steps to try and alleviate the problem. And it was a spectacle that almost no one saw.
Around 11pm Tuesday night, a team of specialists were suspended from the observation deck of the upper SkyPod 447 metres above the ground to try and chip away at the remaining frozen obstructions.
They’re hoping the thin layer that remains will simply melt off and turn into a trickle of water before it hits the ground.
But now some engineers at a New Hampshire school claim they have a solution that will prevent this type of bizarre hazard from plaguing Toronto again.
It involves a kind of preventative medicine that applies a thin film to the surface of the structure before the ice forms.
“We’ve created a process whereby we heat the interface between ice and some substrate with an extremely high rate of power needed to break ice away from the surface,” explains Gabriel Martinez of the Thayer School of Engineering.
But don’t expect Tower officials to be doling out any cold cash for this quarter of a million dollar ice breaker.
The storm that brought this problem is rare and it’s the first time in the landmark’s 30 year history that anything this serious has happened.
Most are betting this is one historical moment that’s unlikely to repeat itself anytime soon.
CityNews Meteorologist Michael Kuss agrees with that assessment. He notes when the higher temperatures finally arrive on Friday, things should change quickly.
“We do have that warm-up. It should come rapidly enough that we will see a fairly quick meltdown on the Tower and other places where we still have ice buildup,” he predicts.
Of course, the experts could always listen to your ideas. You’ve sent in even more about what you’d do to loosen the jam. To read the latest entries, click here.
