While the ARC Tunnel has dominated the headlines lately and the Second Ave. Subway is the sexy New York City Transit project, the East Side Access project will deliver benefits for the city’s commuters, and it too continues apace. Reader Marc G. had a chance to take a trip through the tunnel in progress earlier this year, and he offered up these photos for our weekend enjoyment. The images are arrayed below in gallery form. Click on them to enlarge.
A photo tour of the East Side Access Project
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Can you guys label these? Have no idea what we are looking at..
ahhh, the lirr on the east side.
crikey i hate penn station so much.
i just can’t wait.
Nice pictures. Thanks. Only problem is: too bad the MTA is spending about three times as much on this project as is necessary by building a wholly new deep level station, which will cost a continuing fortune to operate simply to pay for the elevators, escalators and ventilation fans. They could have easily gone right into the existing GCT, which is underutilized and has oodles of track space to spare.
I wish it were a factor of just three. Try 16 instead: $4 billion per km, compared with $250 million for comparable projects in peer cities.
Unfortunately, the connection from the lower level of the 63rd Street tunnel to the existing tracks would be too steep for trains to climb.
Also, the LIRR and Metro-North use two different kinds of third-rail.
The F seems to handle the grade fine: it’s at subsurface level by the 50s.
The two kinds of third rail are a non-issue. First, the same track can have two third rails, one on each side. Second, Grand Central’s track space is so ridiculously underused that the LIRR could hog 10 platform tracks (not that it will ever need 10) and Metro-North wouldn’t even notice the difference.
I took a good pic a couple of weeks ago of where all the spoils from the excavation are going.
The Spoils of Bore