New York MTA Completes Two-Mile Tunnel for Second Avenue Subway

Officials of the biggest U.S. transit agency hailed the more than two-mile (3.2-kilometer) tube from 92nd Street to 63rd Street in Manhattan as a milestone on the road to completing the plan's initial segment. This leg, with a $4.5 billion price tag, is scheduled to open in December 2016 even as the project's remaining two phases remain unfunded.

Construction workers have used a 485-ton tunnel-boring machine since May 2010 to dig at an average depth of 70 feet. A crowd of about 100 MTA employees, contractors and reporters watched as the machine carved through the schist that lies under much of Manhattan.

"When you stand above ground it's sometimes hard to see whether or not there's progress on this project," MTA Chairman Jay Walder, who's leaving in October for a position with Hong Kong's rail operator, told reporters as he stood a few feet from the hole. "You come down here and you see the Second Avenue tunnel taking shape right before our eyes."