The board of the MTA is predicted to carry a particular session Monday with the intention to approve an almost $2 billion contract to dig the majority of the following section of the Second Ave. subway.
“This day is a long time coming,” Jamie Torres-Springer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s head of building and growth, stated at a briefing Friday. “This project is so critically important for East Harlem, but it is also the linchpin of improving the regional transportation network in a lot of ways.”
If authorised, the board will award a $1.97 billion contract to a three way partnership between Halmar Worldwide and FCC Development.
The consortium will probably be tasked with three initiatives: changing 2,500 ft of deserted Nineteen Seventies-era tunnel between E. 116th St. and E. one hundred and twentieth St. into a brand new 116th St. station; digging out a station beneath E. a hundred and twenty fifth St. between Lexington and Park Aves. to accommodate a brand new station linked to the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 trains, in addition to Metro-North; and boring a pair of recent, 8,400-foot tunnels north from the tip of the Nineteen Seventies-era tunnel at one hundred and twentieth St. and Second Ave. to a hundred and twenty fifth St. and Lenox Ave.
“It’s the majority of the major civil [engineering] work,” Torres-Springer stated, in describing the contract’s scope.
Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Day by day Information
MTA Development and Growth boss Jamie Torres-Springer. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Day by day Information)
The work is predicted to begin in September and take 4 years to finish. Full service within the new tunnels — which might carry rail transit to East Harlem for the primary time because the demolition of the Second Ave. elevated line within the Fifties — is scheduled to start in late 2032.
“It’s been over a century since the people of East Harlem were promised a new subway connection,” Gov. Hochul stated in an announcement. “Governors came and went and this promise remained unfulfilled for far too long.”
“Now, with the MTA poised to award this major contract, the time for promises to East Harlem is over and the time for building is here,” she added.
MTA officers stated Friday that the tunnel-boring contract contains a number of efforts to cut back prices for this section of the Second Ave. subway, which has an total price ticket of roughly $7 billion.
The development consortium is already in talks with a German producer about buying a set of recent tunnel-boring machines, officers stated, which might not solely dig by way of the soil and rock beneath East Harlem, however would additionally line the tunnel with pre-formed concrete as they dig — eradicating the necessity to have a separate crew of employees line the tunnel.
Torres-Springer stated that characteristic alone was anticipated to cut back the required work-crew headcount by 40%. That, together with different efficiencies in new tunnel-boring tech, is predicted to avoid wasting roughly $100 million in labor prices.
Moreover, the 116th St. and a hundred and twenty fifth St. stations have been redesigned with smaller footprints for the ancillary tools rooms.
FILE – Individuals cease to have a look at a map of the Second Ave. subway held on the entrance of a vacant storefront on Second Ave. at 69th Str. on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Day by day Information)
The tunnel-boring machines, which should be constructed to order, could be anticipated to succeed in New York Metropolis by early 2027, and could be launched from E. one hundred and twentieth St. The tunnels are anticipated to be accomplished by August 2029.
When the machines attain the tip of their run simply previous E. a hundred and twenty fifth St. and Lenox Ave., transit officers stated their slicing heads would stay within the floor. Whereas that’s partially to avoid wasting on the worth of labor required to take away the heavy tools from beneath the bottom, Torres-Springer acknowledged Friday that the MTA was nonetheless learning the potential for persevering with to dig westward.
A westward growth of the Second Ave. line — connecting the Q line to the A, C, B and D traces at St. Nicholas Ave. and to the the elevated No. 1 practice at Broadway — was first floated by the MTA in 2023, and was backed by Gov. Hochul final 12 months. If undertaken, that challenge is predicted to value an extra $7 billion.
Initially Printed: August 15, 2025 at 3:46 PM EDT
