The Underground Railroad

Drilling of new tunnels brings those who live in Queens closer to the city.

By Melanie Wilson

Two-hundred feet below the feet of New York City's commuters there is a machine. This machine chews day and night through the metamorphic Manhattan bedrock in order to make a deadline. The single-minded goal of this rock-eating monster is to extend the tunnels of the LIRR from Queens to Grand Central. It will also allow the Metro-North trains from Westchester and Connecticut to come all the way through to Penn Station, instead of terminating at Grand Central. The first of these giant tunnel-boring marvels reached the ground under the site of the new terminal beneath Grand Central a few weeks ago, and now it's got to do it again

A new station will be built beneath Grand Central, designed to accommodate increased traffic from the boroughs, and it will be the deepest station in the city. Jim Trainor, VP and Chief Engineer with a division of the MTA, thinks the machines are, “...making good progress.” The runnel-boring machines have a little help, though. They're expanding and extending tunnels that were dug in the 70's that extend under the East River from Long Island City to 2^nd Avenue and 63^rd Street.

 This isn't the only phase of the project. Beginning at the end of 2008, the MTA will award a separate contract to extend the Queens end of the tunnels by over a mile. The entire project is expected to cost in excess of 7 billion dollars, and is expected to be complete in 2015.