AMNY Subway Tracker

Crews digging a tunnel through Manhattan bedrock for the Long Island Railroad have reached Grand Central Terminal — a milestone in the MTA's East Side Access mega-project.

The tunnel boring machine had spent eight months digging from 63rd Street and Second Avenue. A second boring machine is expected to reach Grand Central by the end of the summer.

Workers will next use dynamite to create a chamber deep beneath Grand Central that will become a new station and concourse at Park Avenue and 42nd Street for LIRR trains arriving on the East Side.

“This is probably the largest transportation construction project in the country right now,” said Mysore Nagaraja, president of MTA Capital Construction, said today about East Side Access. Here's a sampling of some photos from the work site at 63rd Street snapped by our Lane Johnson. The tunnel you see here was already built decades ago.

The MTA showed off the first phase of its East Side Access tunnel to reporters today, including the massive underground chamber where a tunnel boring machine will be constructed. The tunnel will connect the LIRR station in Sunnyside with Grand Central Terminal, saving an estimated 50,000 commuters about 40 minutes a day. The $6.3 billion project is on schedule for a 2013 completion date. The next step is to actually build the boring machine, a task that will take two or three months. Here are some images from the MTA. We'll post some photos later, as well as video of the tunnel.

-- Justin Rocket Silverman

With all of the subterranean construction planned for the region, tunnel boring machines could one day become part of the lexicon of the average straphanger. These three-hundred-feet-long monsters that eat dirt, stone and bedrock will be used to dig the Second Avenue Subway. MTA officials say the subterranean diggers will less disruptive to life above ground. The boring machine for the Second Avenue subway won't be here for months, but a similar machine used to dig the East Side Access tunnel should be here by next month. "It's being shipped as we speak," said Mysore L. Nagaraja, the MTA's capital construction chief.
The technology is really cool. There's a pretty interesting YouTube video about it. Seriously, this is one heck of machine.

Maybe that's a big of hyperbole, but take a look at these renderings of the LIRR station under Grand Central for the East Side Access project. The ceilings look pretty low -- kind of like the much, hated claustrophic Penn Station we have now. At least LIRR riders will be used to it and what can we expected 150 feet below Grand Central.

-- Chuck Bennett

Sen. Schumer says the feds are going to approve $300 million for East Side Access, the project to bring the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central. The money is likely to be included in the Fiscal Year 2007 appropriations bill. The feds are committed to funding 9% of the $6.3 billion project, with local agencies supplying 36%. It is still unclear where the remaining $3.4 billion, or 55%, will come from. Assuming the cash is all there, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

-- Chuck Bennett

Sen. Schumer says the feds are going to approve $300 million for East Side Access, the project to bring the Long Island Rail Road into Grand Central. The money is likely to be included in the Fiscal Year 2007 appropriations bill. The feds are committed to funding 9% of the $6.3 billion project, with local agencies supplying 36%. It is still unclear where the remaining $3.4 billion, or 55%, will come from. Assuming the cash is all there, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2013.

-- Chuck Bennett

Most recent project schedules from MTA Capital Construction Co.

New South Ferry Terminal Station
Original Schedule for Substantial Completion: Dec. 2007
Current Schedule: May 2008
Original Budget: $440 million
Current Budget: $489 million

Fulton Street Transit Center
Original Schedule for Substantial Completion: Dec. 2007
Current Schedule: Jun 2009 * (Dependent on EPA approvals for demolitions)
Original Budget: $799 million
Current Budget: $844 million

Second Avenue Subway (Phase 1 - from 96th St. to 63rd St)
Original Schedule for Substantial Completion: 2012
Current Schedule: 2013
Original Budget: $3.8 billion
Current Budget: $3.8 billion

East Side Access (expanding LIRR to Grand Central)
Original Schedule for Substantial Completion: 2nd Q 2012
Current Schedule: 2013
Original Budget: $6.3 billion
Current Budget: $6.3 billion

-- Chuck Bennett

Peter Kalikow just told the Tracker he is sticking around for a while.

“There are five projects that are very important to the system and the agency and I intend on staying until [they] are in a place, that I get them done,” Kalikow said.

Those projects are: digging the Second Avenue Subway, extending the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Station, expanding the No. 7 train to the West Side, building the new Fulton Street station, and rehabilitating the South Ferry station.

"I  want to get them done, and whatever  it takes it takes,"  he said.

Needless to say, Senate Democrats weren't pleased. State Sen. Kevin Parker said Gov. Pataki is trying to "govern from beyond the grave."

-- Chuck Bennett

“By 2012 East (Side) Acess and the Second Avenue Subway will be achieved,” Gov. Pataki promised in a press release yesterday applauding the Federal Transit Adminstration for commiting $4 billion to the two megaprojects. It was a pretty bold promise given the MTA’s habit of completing big projects late and overbudget.

Of course, Pataki will long be out of the governor’s mansion by then.

-- Chuck Bennett