MTA Photos Show LIRR Work in Massive Caverns Under Grand Central

In two caverns 150 feet deep below Grand Central Terminal, work is underway on a project to connect the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal. Contractors are removing enough dirt to fill 13,000 Olympic-sized pools, to make room for platforms and tracks underneath the lower level of Grand Central. And a new LIRR concourse is being built under Metro-North Railroad's upper level, which will provide commuters with 91,000 square feet of public space, including shops and pathways to Grand Central, the subway system and the street above. It's a big, difficult job, as the MTA explains:

One of the more intricate tasks of the program is the installation of structural steel columns to support Metro-North's upper level train shed and buildings in the vicinity of the Park Avenue corridor. This allows for the safe removal of the existing support columns, making room for the excavation of four escalator wellways to provide access between the concourse and the caverns where LIRR trains will come into the station in the future.

Underneath Park Avenue, workers are using two hard-rock tunnel boring machines to expand 32,000 linear feet of new tunnels, from the existing 63rd Street Tunnel down to 37th Street. All in all, the $8 billion "East Side Access" project is expected to cost $3 billion more than the Second Avenue Subway. Service might begin late in 2016, and the MTA says it will relieve congestion at Penn Station while reducing the commute for 180,000 daily riders by about 40 minutes, because those who work on the East Side of Manhattan can take LIRR straight there. (Here's a map of the future!)

There are more photos on the MTA's Facebook profile, and if you're into this sort of thing, don't miss this video of a Tunnel Boring Machine cutter head breaking through the 34th Street Station Cavern Wall, AR AR AR!

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By John Del Signore in News on January 29, 2010 12:15 PM

Comments [rss]

nivek

This is one of two caverns underneath the lower level of Grand Central Terminal that together will hold four platforms and eight tracks for Long Island Rail Road trains. The platforms will be fed by tunnels leading north, seen at the rear of this photo. (MTA/Patrick Cashin )

?? That's it? Why don't you double it while you're at it? Or just drill more just in case you decide to lay the track later...

silver

America stopped being progressive decades ago. This tunnel is just to give welfare to the Italian mob because all industry went to China.

Theodore Wirth

Can you imagine how many jobs a project like this provides? Not to mention quality of life enhancements for commuters locals alike but the added encouragement to ditch their motor vehicles for a trip to/through Manahattan and contribute to a reduction in climate change?

Congress should use consider projects like this to provide additional funding for economic stimulus because since investments in transporation infrastructure don't provide instant profitss, the investment will NOT come from anywhere else, Bloomie and his "cornerstones of the NYC economy" cronies included.

Theodore Wirth

I'm embarrased about the typos BUT IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT BABY (and I started a bit early). There's this beautiful deep purple liquid in the stemware in front of me. Something that I would describe as primeval lubrication for the mind and body.

ProcedureTurn

Where are the Mole People?

Wow! So many people

One fun fact I'm always curious about is how much of the bedrock of the island is still intact. Considering all the subway, train, and utilities conduits that have been cut into the foundation of the island, the engineering that is keeping Manhattan from collapsing into itself never fails to boggle me.

jackie treehorn

nitpick:

is it possible to update the site to display images in a collection like this without a page load?

JenChungsBaby

It's "possible." Every other website does it. But why reduce your pageviews?

Tower18

Ding ding. If you insert links back to your own content all through the post, and each picture view loads a new page, now your page views have gone from 1 to maybe 9-10.

jackie treehorn

re-load, that is. thanks.

JenChungsBaby

I love this stuff and have some great similar photos I've taken myself at different tunneling sites. I gotta say though, that third pic from the left does not look like a tunnel that will carry a train. Not big enough. With that round shape and 10-12 foot diameter it looks more like a water tunnel.