To mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the New York Times Magazine published a 5,000-word article detailing the efforts that kept New York City’s subway system from flooding even worse than it did. To make a long and entertaining story short and simple: planning, prayers and reinforced plywood barriers saved the system from the massive storm surge that pushed billions of gallons of ocean into New York Harbor, as well as every nook, cranny and multi-million-dollar tunnel lower than the high-water line.

Recognizing that hard work, duct tape and good luck aren’t a particularly reliable resiliency strategy, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has spent the last year working on an assortment of plans to keep its vast domain safe from the next storm. Based on local experience and a comprehensive review of flood-protection strategies used in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, London and other cities, the MTA is looking into an array of measures, some traditional and some downright James Bond-like, and investing serious time and money into its long-term well being.

One of the Authority’s first steps was to rebuild the protective measures that were damaged by the storm. The most noticeable of these is the two-mile-long sea wall protecting the A line tracks as they run across Jamaica Bay to the Rockaway peninsula. Sandy’s surges left this stretch of track under five feet of water and covered with debris. At a cost of $15.7 million, the MTA sunk a new 40-foot wall 30 feet into the ground. It’s built from welded, tongue-and-groove, marine-grade steel and is expected to last 100 years.

The Authority also invested in proven technologies like the pumping trains that helped get the system up and running quickly. On a dry day, the MTA pushes out of the system 13 million gallons of water from underground streams, broken water mains and areas with a high water table. When a hurricane like Sandy hits, there’s a lot more water to deal with – so much more that the existing pumps can get overwhelmed. That’s where the pumping trains come in: powered by massive diesel generators, these custom-built machines can push 4,500 gallons of water per minute out of a subterranean tube and into the harbor above. The MTA is currently constructing two new pumping trains.

The Authority is also looking into new technologies like ventilation-grate barriers. FloodBreak, a Houston-based engineering company, has worked with the MTA to design a permanently installed device that can be immediately and easily closed, sealing sidewalk vents from floodwaters. A prototype is in place under a section of grating on Rector Street in Lower Manhattan. If it’s successful, several hundred units may be used at the most vulnerable locations around the city.

Inflatable tunnel plugs are another new and innovative solution that the MTA is testing this year. Hurricane Sandy flooded seven of the subway tunnels that run beneath the East River, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage that is still being repaired. The tunnel plugs, manufactured by ILC Dover, a NASA contractor, could be installed at the mouth of a tunnel, at a subway passenger entrance, or any other large, vulnerable opening to seal them off in the event of a storm surge.

A similar idea is at work with the removable subway stair flood-control covers designed by RSA Protective Technologies, a perimeter security specialist that counts the UN, the IRS and CitiGroup among its many customers. The MTA could seal flood-prone subway entrances with these watertight, aluminum covers and remove them once the waters have receded. This would be particularly impactful in Lower Manhattan, where water entered seven stations and caused at least $600 million in damages to the South Ferry station alone.

Another temporary mitigation device is an inflatable cofferdam, currently being tested by the MTA’s Bridges and Tunnels division. The water-filled tube could be used to secure the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. It takes 20,000 gallons of water to fill each of the 85-foot long barriers, which cost $90,000 each and can hold back three feet of floodwater.

Despite the wow factor that surrounds all of these innovations, the fact remains that the challenge facing New York’s century-old subway system, like the city itself, is deadly serious. The MTA estimates that it will have to spend $4.755 billion just to bring the system and equipment back to pre-storm conditions. To update facilities and infrastructure system-wide will cost significantly more. Though the federal government has already contributed $1.2 billion to the cause, and though the walls can be rebuilt, the tunnels plugged and the equipment and entrances raised, the water that surrounds New York will continue to rise, and along with it, so will the repair bill, and the challenges facing the city, its residents, and the MTA, planning, prayers, and plywood be damned.