January 10, 2010

Here are two nice images (courtesy of the MTA) of the work site under Second Avenue - inside the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) launch box, and future home of the Second Avenue subway 96th Street station.

They're a little dated... but I wanted to post them anyway since very few high quality images of the work under 2nd Avenue have been made public. As I track down additional images I'll be sure to post them here.

Left-click on either image to view the full size. The detail is amazing.


Patrick J. Cashin/MTA - 10/20/09
(probably near 94th Street - looking South)



Patrick J. Cashin/MTA - 10/20/09
(probably near 92nd Street - looking South)

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And here's a small set of pictures that I took on Saturday, 1/9/2010 between 92nd and 102nd Streets.

On Saturday there appeared to be a full crew of workers on the site, all day - including workers from EE Cruz and Tully Construction, who were working near 95th Street.

On this day workers were using two cranes to remove rock and soil from the surface below the decking. In the following four images a large crane is being used to lift pieces of rock.



just south of 92nd - looking W

The man in the foreground is using the rope (in his hands) to help keep the bucket from swinging. He also uses the rope to line up the bucket over the truck, so it is loaded properly.









just south of 92nd - looking NE



btw. 98th and 99th, east side of the Avenue

This very old fire hydrant is located in front of Metropolitan Hospital. I tried to date it on FireHydrant.org and my guess is that it was made by A.P. Smith Mfg. Co. of East Orange, NJ about 100 years ago.



btw. 98th & 99th



near 97th



just south of 97th - looking S



1850 2nd Avenue (just south of 96th)

Between 95th and 96th Streets the pedestrian walkway on the east side has been moved to the center of 2nd Avenue. Access to this deli is maintained by the passageway shown, while work proceeds north and south of this location.



btw. 95th and 96th - looking N



A closer look at this drilling rig.



95th, SW corner - looking up

In this image you see 3 retroreflectors that have been mounted in the side of this building by the contractors. The platform at the top is for the Automatic Target Recognizing Station.



A close-up view of a retroreflector.



94th - NE corner - looking SW

A look through the maze of fencing at this location.



102nd - SW corner

This appears to be a service entrance to a section of the 2nd Avenue subway tunnel that was completed during the mid-1970s. This particular tunnel runs from 99th Street to 105th Street.

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"Second Avenue Tunnel Boring Machine" (1:50)
"A light-hearted look at a technically complex subject."
By Stagesynapses - MeFeedia - 12/19/09

This short video provides us with the first glimpse of the actual Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) that will be used on this project.

The machine that is shown in the video is an S-434 Herrenknecht Gripper Tunnel Boring Machine. This particular machine was last used on the Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Abatement Project in Fall River, Massachusetts. It was originally manufactured by the company Herrenknecht AG, in Schwanau, Germany.

At the moment the TBM is sitting in a construction yard in New Jersey, but sources tell me that contractor plans to start assembling it inside the launch box at the end of March 2010 and they expect to start the first drive two months later, in May.

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Flickr user -ytf - 12/30/09
91st - looking N

I came across this set of stereo images about a week ago on the Flickr website and the photographer gave me permission to use them.

Per the photographer, "To view in stereo, sit 2-3 feet from the monitor and gently cross your eyes so that the two images become three. The one in the middle will be in 3d. If you are finding this difficult, you may be trying too hard."

Viewing the original size, by left-clicking on the image, is best.


That's it for now!