The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority completed tunneling for the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway when a tunnel boring machine (TBM) reached the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station, breaking into the existing tunnel. The completion of tunneling marks a major milestone in the $4.45 billion project that will provide service from 96th Street to 63rd Street as an extension of the Q train.

The TBM began its journey in March and completed the east
(northbound) tunnel after making a tight, westerly curve into the
existing 63rd Street Station. The tunnel will now receive the concrete
lining which provides the permanent tunnel structure. The work is part
of the initial $392 million tunnels and shafts contract that was awarded
in March 2007 to Skanska, Schiavone and Shea Tunnel Constructors, JV.

The
485-ton, 450-foot-long TBM used a 22-foot diameter cutterhead to mine
7,789 linear feet averaging approximately 60 linear feet a day. The
average depth of the tunnel is 70 feet. During the first 200 feet, the
TBM mined through ground which has been frozen, a technique which
engineers employ to harden soil, or decomposed rock, enabling the
excavation process.

The TBM began mining the 7,209 linear-foot
west (southbound) tunnel in May 2010 from the launch box at 92nd Street
and was then disassembled and pulled back to 92nd Street where it
started its second run this spring to mine the east tunnel.

Work
is currently underway to rehabilitate the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street
station to accommodate the future Q extension. It will now take
approximately three weeks to partially disassemble and pull back the TBM
through the tunnel by locomotive. The TBM will be completely dismantled
once it returns to the launch box and will be sent back to the
contractor’s facilities.

Phase I of the Second Avenue Subway will
serve more than 200,000 people per day, reducing overcrowding on the
Lexington Avenue Line and restoring a transit link to a neighborhood
that lost the Second Avenue Elevated in the 1940’s.

When Phase I
is complete in December 2016, it will decrease crowding on the adjacent
Lexington Avenue Line by as much as 13%, or 23,500 fewer riders on an
average weekday. It will also reduce travel times by up to 10 minutes or
more (up to 27%) for those on the far east side or those traveling from
the east side to west midtown.

The line is being built in phases,
with the Phase I of the Second Avenue Subway providing service from
96th Street to 63rd Street as an extension of the Q train, including
three new ADA-accessible stations along Second Avenue at 96th, 86th and
72nd Streets, and new entrances to the existing Lexington Avenue- 63rd
Street Station at 63rd Street and Third Avenue. Further phases of the
project will extend the line from 125th Street in Harlem to Hanover
Square in the Financial District. The configuration of the tracks will
allow for possible future extensions into Brooklyn, Queens, and the
Bronx.

Funding for this critical improvement to the MTA’s
transportation network is being provided by MTA local sources and
federal ($1.37 billion) sources.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will begin the last major contract this month needed to extend the 7 subway line to the Far West Side of Manhattan. The contract, signed in August for $513.7 million, was awarded to a joint venture of Skanska USA and RailWorks Corp. The funding for this contract is being provided by the Hudson Yards Development Corporation. Under this award, contractors will lay the tracks through the newly completed tunnels and build the signals that will guide trains along the new sections of track and the third rails that will power them. They will also build elevators and escalators at the new station, and the station's systems for electrical power, lighting, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and they will connect the new station and tunnels to utilities. "This award marks a major milestone as we continue to make progress on the construction of the 7 extension project," said Michael Horodniceanu, Ph.D., president of MTA capital construction. "With the award of this contract, we're one step closer to opening up the Far West Side of Manhattan to major, transit-oriented economic growth." The contracting companies have committed to aggressive goals of hiring state-designated minority-owned subcontractors for 15 percent of work and women-owned subcontractors for an additional 5 percent of work. The $2.1 billion project to extend the 7 train to the Far West Side of Manhattan, with a new station at 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue, is expected to open for service in December 2013.