As the Second Ave. Subway battles problems and delays, the MTA’s East Side Access project is moving ahead mostly as scheduled. Yesterday, the MTA awarded a $659 million tunneling contract to a joint venture team of Granite Construction Inc., Traylor Bros. Inc. and Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. The contract, according to the Associated Press, covers the “Queens Bored Tunnels and Structures for Long Island Rail Road’s East Side Access project in New York. The work to be done on the project represents the last major link in the tunnels from Queens to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.”
Work on this tunnel is scheduled to take 42 months and will begin immediately. Reports the AP, “The companies will excavate and concrete line four bored tunnels beneath an active rail storage yard. The tunnels will total nearly two miles in length and about 22 feet in diameter. The work also includes excavating three emergency exit structures, underpinning existing bridges and demolishing various rail yard buildings.” Although it will not meet its original 2012 completion date, the East Side Access project remains on track for a 2015 opening.
6 comments
i can’t wait.
Me too. Oh the possibilities.
I wonder what kind of service they will provide in the end.
Like, will the LIRR service into Grand Central run only in rush hours, or will there be at least SOME trains on the LIRR going into and out of Grand Central seven days a week?
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So I guess it is the three-station Second Avenue subway that will be cancelled. Queue the rationalizations that there is plenty of room on the Lex anyway, or only rich people ride it.
Never forget that as part of an effort to put the MTA in its place, Sheldon Silver held up the SAS for several years while allowing ESA to go ahead. Which is what Pataki wanted anyway.
Me too. Oh the possibilities.