MTA workers oversee the 100-ton Tunnel Boring Machine on Thursday morning as Mayor Bloomberg and transit officials look on. (Photo courtesy of the MTA)
In a little while, I’ll get to this piece of bad news. But while the state legislature was busy ignoring the MTA’s needs, the transit agency and the city were looking forward to a new era of construction and subway expansion. Thursday was, then, a day of both progress and regression on the NYC transit front.
Early on Thursday morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MTA officials gathered at 11th Ave. and 25th St. to celebrate the lowering of one of the two tunnel-boring machines for the 7 line extension. These machines will work their ways north from this spot on the far west side of Chelsea past the eventual Hudson Yards area and then eastward along 41st St. until meeting up with the existing 7 tubes near Times Square. The extension, according to the MTA, will open in 2013.
Along the way, a piece of subway history will vanish though. A vacant platform on the long-shuttered lower level at the 8th Ave. A/C/E stop at 42nd St. will soon meets it doom as the 7 stretches westward. NYCSubway.org has some dramatic images of the destruction of the platform that has been closed since 1981.
Above ground, the politicians and MTA officials were, of course, in a celebratory mood. “Today, we’re beginning the next and most dramatic phase of the extension of the 7 subway line,” Bloomberg said. “By digging these tunnels, we are expanding our subway network into an entirely new area of the City: Manhattan’s Far West Side. It’s these major, long-term investments in infrastructure that will transform areas full of promise into neighborhoods full of residents, park-goers, office workers and shoppers.”
MTA Executive Director and CEO Elliot Sander used the opportunity to stress what the MTA, with money, can accomplish. “As we prepare our next Capital Plan, this project shows that with stable funding in place, we can build monumental works that will serve generations of New Yorkers,” Sander said. “We are deeply grateful for Mayor Bloomberg’s steadfast commitment to this project, and we appreciate and share his understanding of the important role that transportation will play in catalyzing the development of the Far West Side.”
While this optimism is not misplaced, the event and the release about it had the air of perhaps too much enthusiasm. In discussing the city-funded $2.1-billion extension of the 7 line, the MTA press release noted how this project will “help transform the Hudson Yards vicinity into a vibrant 24-hour neighborhood, containing a mix of commercial, residential, retail, open space and recreational uses.” Right now, though, the MTA has yet to sign a deal with Related, and odds are good that when this subway extension opens, development on the Hudson Yards land will be in the nascent stages. The city should build this line to encourage growth in underdeveloped areas of the city, but a completed Hudson Yards project is a long way off.
Furthermore, while these TBMs will dig past 41st St. and 10th Ave., plans for that station have been shelved. Until and unless the MTA and the city can come to an agreement, the two stubborn governing bodies will forego the best chance they have to build a station at a spot that needs one.
Meanwhile, the MTA has released the various technical details for all the TBM fans among us. It will take two months to assembly these machines. The first will be ready to dig in April and the second in May. These machines will dig under a large number of preexisting tunnels including the 8th Ave. line, the Amtrak tunnels near Penn Station and the Lincoln Tunnel tubes. The TBM excavation will wrap up next spring.
While the MTA remains in economic limbo, this is an important milestone for the transit agency. While a new station at South Ferry along with Phase I of the SAS and this 7 line extension may seem modest, this is the largest expansion of the subway system most New Yorkers have witnessed in their lives. Hopefully, this potential for progress won’t be dashed by the shortsightedness of our elected representatives.
Postscript: For the technical-minded among us, the MTA press release had some more info:
Each TBM will place pre-cast concrete lining rings, 1,890 in total, along the tunnel as it excavates. The lining rings make up the permanent liner of the finished tunnel. In addition, the crushed rock, a by-product of the excavation known as muck, will be carried via a conveyor belt system from the cutter head to the back of the TBM where it will be loaded onto muck cars. The cars will transport the muck back to the launch shaft, using a temporary rail system installed in the tunnels, where another conveyor belt will carry it to the surface.
While work progressed in creating the TBM assembly chamber, the station cavern underneath 34th Street and 11th Avenue was also being mined using controlled drill-and-blast. Station cavern excavation continues and will be completed by September 2009 in time for the TBMs to reach the mined cavern where they will be “walked” through to begin the next leg of their excavation journey.
11 comments
They’re acting like 11th Avenue is located in Pennsylvania or something, instead of 3 or 4 blocks away from a dozen existing subway lines. Wake me up when the subway serves actual unserved neighborhoods like most of the LES or roughly half of Brooklyn and Queens.
Why didn’t they consider doing the second avenue subway as a deep bore project like this one? It would seem to be simpler, not having to interrupt street traffic, relocate utilities, etc. Is cut and cover really cheaper in a city like NY?
Al, they’re doing Second Avenue subway as a deep bore. Nobody is building Second Avenue as a cut-and-cover project. The construction work you see in the 90s is to create a spot to lower the TBM, and also to help build the 96th Street station.
Why is this taking so long? Even assembling the boring machines will take two months! Weren’t the first several subway lines built within four years? Why can’t we replicate that today?
One of the problems with replicating that today is that the first subway line wasn’t exactly a great piece of construction. Notice how those stations are very leaky and fairly decrepit? That’s a shoddy job. At least the 7 line extension should be better engineered.
Additionally, much of the original subway snaked through relatively undeveloped territory. It didn’t require careful excavation of areas with large buildings and utility pipes.
And for better or worse, the unions probably play a bigger role now. It’s probably much safer now, but also much slower.
Exactly. Amount of workers factors in as well. You had thousands of workers working on the first IRT subway between 1900 and 1904. Now there are about 50 workers relocating utilities on Second Avenue.
the projected year for the subway to be open is 2013, thats…4 years
[…] I covered the 7 line groundbreaking this morning, one aspect of this story escaped me. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose city is footing […]
It would be awesome to get one of those signs from the 42nd St. platform that is being demolished.`
bay crane!!