The machines have breached the dock and Zion is about to to be overrun with thousands of sentinels! Okay, let's start this Friday right with video and photos of our beloved Tunnel Boring Machine [TBM] drilling through the last bit of bedrock to complete the 7 line extension. "Just after 4 p.m. on Thursday, the ground shook and the tunnel boring machine rumbled louder and louder as rocks fell to the floor of the chamber under the Port Authority bus terminal," the AP reports. "After a few minutes, dust filled the air and the rest of the rocks fell as the machine's blades spun in a circular motion, leaving a 22-foot-wide round hole."
Don't worry, Hizzoner finally stops droning on at the 54 second mark and the audio switches to the hole. We really want to high-five the sandhog who brought the air horn.
This is the second of two machines that have been drilling for the past year to extend the 7 line from 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue to 34th Street and 11th Avenue, near the site of the 26-acre Hudson Yards development. Fun fact: Both TBMs were named Emma and Georgina, after Bloomberg's daughters! Emma and Georgina weigh 485 tons.
"We talk about these big projects. This is one that we're actually doing, and we're doing it on-time, on budget," Bloomberg told reporters yesterday. The extension has cost taxpayers $2.1 billion, and was originally to have included a subway station at 41st Street and 10th Avenue, but that was put on hold because of lack of funds. And get excited, because the 11th Avenue station is expected to open in... 2013! (For all our detailed TBM coverage click here.)
