Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Second Ave. subway plan picks up speed

Breaking ground on the Second Avenue subway - a dream for generations - is just months away, transit officials said yesterday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority hopes to award a contract to build a new tunnel for the East Side subway line by year's end, Mysore Nagaraja, president of the MTA's Capital Construction Co., said.

A giant underground boring machine will be used to drill through the rock below Second Avenue between 92nd and 63rd Sts., making progress at an estimated 40 to 50 feet a day, officials said.

Before the tunneling begins, possibly as early as next summer, the MTA will excavate a launch site for the boring machine. That work - and other preparations - could start in late December or early next year, Nagaraja said.

"After 60 years of planning, we are now building," Nagaraja said.

The first leg of the project will feature stations at 96th, 86th and 72nd Sts., and new entrances to the existing 63rd St. station on the Broadway line.

Trains would switch over to the Broadway line at 63rd St.

The $3.8 billion first phase of the Second Avenue subway is scheduled to be completed in 2013; it will carry about 200,000 riders a day.

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