Tess, one of two TBMs set to dig beneath the Sunnyside Yard, awaits its activation. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)
MTA officials and local politicians met underneath the Sunnyside Yard in Queens this afternoon to commemorate the launch of tunnel boring machines Tess and Molina. The two machines, named by sixth graders from I.S. 204 in Long Island City, will dig out four tunnels in Queens that connect the tracks of the LIRR Main Line with the tunnel underneath the East River and into Grand Central. Digging will be completed in October 2012, and MTA officials maintain that East Side Access is one pace to wrap up in 2016.
“One hundred years ago, the tunnels under Penn Station gave Long Islanders easy access to Manhattan, essentially giving birth to Long Island as we know it today and leading to enormous growth in the region,” MTA Chairman Jay Walder said thi smorning. “Today, East Side Access will build on this growth and transform this region in a similar way. Commuters throughout Long Island and Queens will have more service to Manhattan and shorter travel times to the East Side—making these communities even more attractive places to live, increasing housing values, and unlocking the next wave of economic development potential on Long Island.”
During the press event this afternoon, Michael Horodniceanu, head of MTA Capital Construction, and Walder spoke of the tunnel boring machines. The blue one that’s featured in my photos was named Tess by Sangida Bagum. It’s an acronym for Tunnel Excavation Sunny Side. Molina, the one digging below Tess, is a play on the word mole and was named by Mohammad Malik, Michael Morales, and Angel Peralta. Molina will actually begin tunneling first.
From a technical perspective, these TBMs are somewhat different from that working its way underneath Second Ave. These are, as Horodniceanu said, slurry TBMs. Because the ground is so soft and the water table is only 14 feet below the TBMs, these machines must remove soil and install interlocking concrete rings to create the tunnel as it proceeds. As Horodniceanu explained, the machines turn the soil into a slurry — a paste “thinner than pudding but thicker than shampoo.” Each machine has a 22-foot diameter cutterhead and, with 300 feet of trailing equipment, weigh 642 tons.
“We are building the largest transportation construction project in the country,” Horodniceanu said. “It’s an unbelievably complex undertaking which involves working in and around the busiest rail yard in the United States. I’m extremely proud of the level of teamwork all the staff and contractors are engaging in to make this project a reality.”
You can view all of my pictures from the event right here, and a slideshow follows after the jump. I should have some videos to post over the weekend.
21 comments
Speaking of the East Side Access project, I remember how they originally were saying that the new entrance on 47th St. east of Park Ave. was to be finished in 2011.
By late last year, they were saying 2012. Can we really believe that the ENTIRE East Side Access project will be completed in 2016?
Isn’t part of the tunnel already complete? I thaught the 63rd Street tunnel was bi-level wich includes tracks for the F line through Queensbridge & sunnyside.
Yes, but they still need to bore a short distance to connect the mainline to the tunnel.
If they had built the connection from the 63rd st tunnel’s upper level to the LIRR tracks, this would likely be what the construction would be like.
I had thought these tunnels had already been dug. What about the tunnels under Park Ave. on the Manhattan side? What’s the status of those?
Those started first and are almost finished. The bulk of the work (4+ years) will be the stations (New Grand Central and Sunnyside stations), escalators, concourses, etc.
I’m surprised it took them so long to start this project. They’ve had that huge hole in the ground at 41st Ave and 31st St in Long Island City for forever.
Is part of this project also about building the LIRR Sunnyside Station? According to Wikipedia, the new LIRR Sunnyside Station is supposed to be built at Queens Blvd. and Skillman Avenue. Whenever I travel by the area (or look at maps of the area), it seems like the area consists mostly of tracks. Will the station be built underground?
Is the Sunnyside Station still included in the plans? Difficult to discern this from online literature.
I also wonder what kind of service there will be on that line.
Like, seven days a week, or rush hours only?
It’s going to be 24/7 service to Grand Central. The entire LIRR schedule will change when this opens.
Sounds like good news!
I hope you’re right.
It’s strange how the MTA website has never said anything about that matter.
What’s with the Yankees’ logo? Long Island / Queens is Mets country!
It’s Ben’s avatar. He’s a serious Yankees fan.
Whenever I look at this project, I wonder if it would have better to just extend the GCT-42nd Street Shuttle to Hunters Point Avenue, and do an intermodal stop there with the LIRR. And have the 7 train take care of things in the weekend.
True, that needs some construction and tweaking, but it’s cheaper than East Side Access.
Anything would be cheaper than East Side Access, which at $4 billion per kilometer is by a large margin the world’s most expensive tunnel.
But extending the shuttle is impossible. It used to be part of the IRT mainline, from the 4/5/6 to the south to the 1/2/3 to the north. As a result, it’s at the same level as the Lexington Line, making any extension impossible. That’s why they deep-bored the 7 instead of using the shuttle.
Would someone please explain why ESA seems always associated with extending LIRR to Grand Central? Can’t it equally extend NJ Transit there as well? And Metro North to Penn? Or am I missing something?
There isn’t going to be a connection between NJT and ESA, or more precisely Penn and ESA’s new 42nd Street terminal, which strictly speaking is not part of Grand Central Terminal. However, a tunnel feeding into ESA from NJ perhaps would have made more sense than ARC. The whole reason these moronic underground fortresses are being proposed in the first place is these three agencies (two of them sub-agencies of a bigger agency that can’t keep its house in order) just don’t get along, and NJT would probably need to through serve to Long Island (and LIRR to NJ) to utilize ESA even if the two could be connected.
ESA will clear some capacity in Penn when LIRR moves much of its service to the east side, so at that point MNRR might (and should) opt to use Penn.
MNRR will be using ESA to run trains on the New Haven line into Penn. This will open up additional rush hour slots in the Park Avenue tunnels.
I have heard the plan is for Hudson line trains to also run west side of manhattan into Penn as well. Obviously not all of them though.
Would be ideal for me if a MNRR/LIRR station was put on this in Sunnyside sometime soon.
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GOD BLESS THE NYC SANDHOGS LOCAL 147!
For all the money spent on the East Side Access project, and the idea of diverting trains to GCT from Penn Station makes sense, why does it make any sense to have Metro North trains running in to replace the LIRR trains that were diverted? You’ll still have the same problems. Instead of the Long Island Railroad, you’ll have Metro North using track space that is needed by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. Also,how eill the MNRR trains effect the NEC schedules.