[UPDATE: VIDEO BELOW] That big beautiful specimen you see dangling behind our mayor is the front part of what will be a 100-ton tunnel boring machine, or "TBM," as they say in the boring biz. Today workers lowered the "cutter head" part of the TBM into a "launch chamber" hole near the intersection of 25th Street and 11th Avenue, where come spring they'll begin drilling two 7,100-foot long tunnels to Times Square as part of the long-awaited 7 train extension.
This totally bad-ass cutter head measures 22-feet in diameter and has forty-four rotating discs. Officials say the TBM will start boring sometime around the end of April, to be followed by a second TBM one month later, in mid-May. Each TBM will place pre-cast concrete lining rings, 1,890 in total, along the tunnel as it excavates; the lining rings make up the permanent liner of the finished tunnel. They're scheduled to finish the required excavation in the spring of 2010, at which time the follow-on work will begin, with the new service opening in December 2013. You can set your watch to it!
In a statement, Governor Paterson explained that "by extending the Number 7 line to 34th Street and 11th Avenue, we are introducing a vital lifeline to one of our city’s least developed areas. As we fight to restore confidence and prosperity in the markets, it is crucial that we promote the economic potential of the new Far West Side." And Bloomberg hopes the $2.1 billion project will help transform the Hudson Yards vicinity into "a vibrant 24-hour neighborhood." Who knows when that will ever happen, but it at least sounds better than a Jets stadium.
And here's a neat video all about the TBM. (Thanks, Kyle T.)
