After a long time of on-again, off-again guarantees to carry fast transit again to East Harlem, substantive work is about to renew on the long-awaited Second Avenue subway extension.
The MTA’s board unanimously accredited a $2 billion tunneling contract with a three way partnership between Halmar Worldwide and FCC Building for the northward enlargement of the Q line Monday, at a particular session held in Harlem.
Preparatory work is about to start subsequent month, although the precise tunneling gained’t start till a pair of latest tunnel boring machines may be delivered from Germany. These machines — which transit officers say will enable for 40% smaller work crews — are due on American shores in early 2027.
Employees put the ending touches on the brand new 86th Avenue subway station in New York, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016. The primary part of the 2nd Avenue subway line, which has three stops, is scheduled to open on Jan. 1, 2017. (AP Picture/Seth Wenig)
As soon as assembled, the machines will start digging north from underneath E. a hundred and twentieth St., the place a set of deserted Seventies-era tunnels finish.
From there, the tunnel borers will dig at a fee of 30 to 40 ft per day, based on Sib Rizwan head of the mission for MTA’s development department.
After the tunnels and station containers are constructed, work crews will nonetheless want to put the tracks and outfit the stations — contracts which have but to be awarded. The northern enlargement of the Second Avenue subway is predicted to open to riders in 2032.
New Yorkers had been first promised a subway line underneath Second Avenue within the Nineteen Twenties, a part of an enlargement of the IND traces often known as the “second system.”
Although the development of that line was waylaid by the Nice Despair within the Thirties, the town tore down the elevated traces on Second and Third Avenues within the following a long time, leaving communities like East Harlem with none fast transit for greater than 70 years, and overburdening the East Aspect’s sole subway, the Lexington Avenue line that carries the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 trains.
“I’m encouraged. I really am encouraged,” Diane Collier, head of neighborhood non-profit Uptown Grand Central, advised the MTA board forward of its vote on Monday.
“But I wanted to let you know, you’re not off the hook,” Collier mentioned. “This community and I will be watching you — we will be prodding you — to ensure that the benefits promised and discussed will be realized.”
Initially Revealed: August 18, 2025 at 3:57 PM EDT
