NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board has approved a $1.97 billion contract for tunnel boring to extend the Second Avenue Subway, a 1.5-mile addition to extend the Q Line from 116th Street to 125th Street, and then west along 125th Street to Park Avenue in East Harlem.
The contract approved today (Monday, Aug. 18) is the second of four to be awarded for the project, which will add three stations. It will also include excavating space for the new 125th Street station, as well as outfitting an existing tunnel from the 1970s to accommodate the 116th Street station.
“East Harlem is one of the most transit-reliant neighborhoods in New York, but every day, tens of thousands of commuters lack subway access,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press release. “The Second Avenue Subway will change everything; it will shorten commutes for over 100,000 daily riders and make East Harlem more vibrant than ever. Awarding this contract means that the time for promises to this community is over and the time for building is here.”
The contract has been awarded to Connect Plus Partners, a joint venture of Halmar International and FCC Construction. It calls for a bore 35 to 120 feet below Second Avenue, and is expected to involve the use of 750-ton Tunnel Boring Machines with 22-foot drill heads. Early work will begin this year, with heavy construction beginning in early 2026 and the tunnel boring itself expected to begin in 2027.
“Today’s contract award brings us closer to world-class transit service in East Harlem,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Construction and Development. “Using lessons learned from Phase 1, we’re excited to keep our momentum going and complete this contract better, faster, and cheaper than ever.”
The MTA says it will save significantly on construction costs by addressing utility relocation ahead of the boring — a step for which the contract was awarded in 2024 after being put out to bid in mid-2023 [see “New York MTA takes first step …,” Trains.com, July 6, 2023]. The agency says it will save more than $1.3 billion on phase two of the project through that measure and others including reuse of the 1970s tunnel, early real estate acquisition, and the structure of the project contracts. The project is budgeted at $6.99 billion and will be funded in part with money from New York’s congestion tolling program.
More MTA information on the second phase of the Second Avenue Subway extension is available here. The first phase, a 1.8-mile addition from 63rd Street to 96th Street, opened Jan. 1, 2017.
Eons ago I attended a lecture at Cooper Union wherein I was introduced to the phenomenon of “Bad Transit Karma,” the coincidence of transit project announcements and things like stock market crashes, world wars, et. al. I shall be hiding under the floorboards until whatever passes.
Back in the day, people walked two blocks over to the IRT Lex.
Bound to be going to do wonders… Note that this tunneling contract marks the largest awarded in MTA’s history.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
A worthy and much needed project, Midtown to Harlem to East Bronx. If completed by, say, 2065 (I’m trying to be optimistic), it will have taken a century to build. New York was talking about this subway in the 1960’s.
Over one billion dollars per mile.
For just the boring —- if it comes in on budget.