Drivers heading to NJ via the Lincoln Tunnel this morning got a rude awakening because a tractor-trailer overturned on the helix in Weehawken, NJ around 5:30 a.m., causing the Port Authority to close the NJ bound tunnels. MyFoxNY reports, "Only buses are being allowed through the north tube into New Jersey and there is no inbound express bus service." Drivers are being told to use the Holland Tunnel or George Washington Bridge instead. more ›

Bob Diamond, who rediscovered the Atlantic Avenue subway tunnel in the early 1980s, and has been giving tours there since, is now suing the city to regain access to the abandoned site. Diamond sent us the above letter, explaining that it's "the opening shot of our lawsuit against DOT. We had to first give them 7 days to respond. When DOT fails to do so next week, the lawsuit papers against DOT will be filed with the Courts. I'm truly sorry it went this way, but its all on DOT's head." more ›

A few weeks ago, NJ Governor Chris Christie cancelled plans to build a second NJ Transit tunnel between New Jersey and New York, seemingly for good. Well, not if Amtrak has anything to say about it. Amtrak Vice President Al Engel says they're talking to NJ Transit about teaming up and finishing the tunnel themselves, and using it for a high-speed rail. However, they stress there is nothing set in stone, so there's still plenty of time for the abandoned construction space to get turned into an elite street art collection. more ›

Though New Jersey Governor Chris Christie admits he is the one who pulled the plug on the $8.7 billion Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel, don't let that fool you into thinking he's actually going to take the blame. Nope, NJ Transit lines will remain clogged, and it's all former Governor Corzine's fault! Christie said the project "went from $5 billion to $8.7 billion in what was clearly a rush by the Corzine administration to have gold shovels and put them the ground and try to get (former Gov. Jon) Corzine re-elected. That obviously was less than successful." more ›

Despite being musically inspiring for some, the BQE is generally a fuzzy migraine wrapped in a pounding headache for commuters and local residents alike; constant traffic delays, dilapidated sections, and endless car noise can do that. With stretches of the expressway between Sands Street and Atlantic Avenue desperately needing repair, state transportation officials are considering several different options for how to handle it. One such proposal that is gaining steam is to build a tunnel under Brownstone Brooklyn that would stretch all the way from the Prospect Expressway to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. more ›

According to the NY Post, Port Authority police increased security after learning of a terrorist threat "advising them to be on the lookout for a fuel-filled tanker meant to explode prior to a secondary blast designed to decimate any first responders... The chilling warning was read at roll call for four police commands - cops assigned to the Holland and Lincoln Tunnel; the George Washington Bridge; and also the Staten Island command, which incorporates the Bayonne and Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, a source said." more ›

The Department of Environmental Protection announced today that they've completed work on boring and instillation of 8.5 miles of concrete liner in a new tunnel that will bring drinking water (that ideally isn't filled with aresenic) to the surface. Just in time for Drinking Water Week! The $6 billion project should be done with the Manhattan portion by 2013, but you may not have even known it was happening. more ›

Skeptics will surely dismiss these photos as fraudulent, while conspiracy theorists will herald them as ultimate proof that the stories are TRUE: far below the surface of the Earth, a small army of workers have been toiling on a fanciful project known, among the faithful, as "The Second Avenue Subway." Once the stuff of children's fairy tales, this new evidence would seem to support the controversial idea that this transit chimera is all too real. We're through the looking glass, people! more ›

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: more ›

An administrator for the sandhog's union has been accused of heisting $42 million from the labor group — and spending a chunk of the cash on high-end horses, according to the Times. Melissa King, 58, is facing charges for allegedly exploiting her role overseeing benefits funds for the tunnel borers and using their money to pay for her lavish lifestyle and her youngest daughter's equestrian pursuits. more ›

The man who found the abandoned trolley tunnel under Atlantic Avenue thirty years ago, Bob Diamond, is now hoping to find some historical booty down there. The Brooklyn Paper's got a serious skeptical tone in their report, but even National Geographic is interested enough to finance, produce and staff an archeological dig that might go down this coming January. more ›

[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 ›

Isn't it irritating how when you take the subway or PATH to Herald Square en route to Penn Station you have to clamber up to the street and wade through the mob scene just to schlep a block over to Seventh Avenue and go back underground again? Why can't there be a tunnel connecting the two stations? Turns out there is; it's just that it was closed sometime around 1990, possibly because nobody wanted to pay for its maintenance. more ›

Following the news that garbage trucks would soon be creative canvas for advertisers, and with ads already in and now around subway cars...it was only a matter of time before the interior subway tunnels themselves became a money-maker as well. Who looks out the windows while underground? Who knows, but LA has commercial images projected on the interior of tunnels, and now NYC is going to try it out. The NY Times reports that "starting next spring with the 42nd Street-Times Square shuttle, passengers will see advertising outside the windows as the train travels between stations. The messages will look rather like jumpy 15-second TV ads." To illuminate the underground with your ad, it'll cost around $95K for one month. Okay fine, it's actually kind of cool. But if you think the adsuration of NYC stops there, think again--turnstile arms (Purell should really get in on this action), station interiors and exterior station walls are also up for grabs now. more ›

Justice was meted out swiftly yesterday in the case of Pfizer vs. the Long Island Viagra enthusiast who gets his kicks cruising around Manhattan with a 25-foot decommissioned missile emblazoned with the priceless message 'Viva Viagra.' Yesterday we learned that the man, 48-year-old Arye Sachs, had no trouble getting the missile in and out of Manhattan through the tunnels because police were just so tickled by the gag. Not amused, of course, were the suits at Pfizer who, instead dismissing their overpaid marketing staff and hiring the obviously inspired Sachs, unleashed the lawyers. Now Sachs has to find a way to fill the empty hours that doesn't involve promoting a pharmaceutical company. And it gets worse—the humorless judge also ordered Sachs to abandon his hilarious plan to distribute politically-themed Viagra condoms. What's next—no more sidesplitting Viagra joke emails??? more ›

West Babylon's Arye Sachs, age 48, has a simple hobby: cruising Manhattan with a 25-foot-long missile emblazoned with the slogan, "Viva Viagra." But his love for that inexhaustible fount of Viagra comedy has now landed him in legal trouble, as the company is suing him in federal court for illegal use of their logo, which they noticed on his missile when he repeatedly drove past Viagra headquarters in midtown. Sachs explained his pastime to the judge yesterday: "Once in a while you want to have fun, and that's what it's all about: fun." He also revealed that he got the missile in and out of Manhattan via the Midtown Tunnel, where, on September 8th, police laughed and saluted when they saw him. Got that terrorists? Missiles in the tunnel are a-okay, but don't you dare mess with our corporate logos. more ›

Ah, the Second Avenue subway project—that mythical, subterranean Chimera that mayors and governors have spun tales about since time immemorial—is once again in danger of abandonment. With all the talk of service cutbacks as the MTA stares down the barrel of a $1 billion budged deficit, some are wondering if the transit authority should really be spending an estimated $3,000 every minute of every day to dig under Second Avenue at this particular juncture. more ›

Two weeks ago, during the festivities for the Brooklyn Bridge's 125th birthday, a mysterious and massive device was unveiled with little fanfare near the base of the bridge. Called the Telectroscope, the installation was said to optically connect passersby at either end of a forgotten tunnel between Brooklyn and London (near the Tower Bridge). The British artist behind the project, Paul St George, says he's merely fulfilling the Victorian-era dream of his great-grandfather, inventor Alexander Stanhope St George, who left behind designs for the telectroscope, as well as the secret, unfinished trans-Atlantic tunnel. more ›

The American Institute of Architects is looking to supplant the idea of replacing the Gowanus Expressway with a tunnel, and instead proposes a suspended highway and formation of a Gowanus Greenway. In 2006, the Dept. of Transportation gave a green light to a $12.8 billion proposal to build a 3.5 mile, seven lane tunnel underneath the Brooklyn Waterfront and then destroying the elevated highway. The plan for a Gowanus Tunnel appears to be in perpetual stall though, and would take approximately 15 years to finish. more ›