[UPDATE: VIDEO BELOW] That big beautiful specimen you see dangling behind our mayor is the front part of what will be a 100-ton tunnel boring machine, or "TBM," as they say in the boring biz. Today workers lowered the "cutter head" part of the TBM into a "launch chamber" hole near the intersection of 25th Street and 11th Avenue, where come spring they'll begin drilling two 7,100-foot long tunnels to Times Square as part of the long-awaited 7 train extension. more ›