Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Infrastructure

Touring the East Side Access Tunnel, Surrounded By Schist

This morning I took a tour of the MTA's newly completed East Side Access tunnel 140 feet below Midtown Manhattan. My laptop is about to run out of batteries and, of course, I left my power cord at home. (It's a good thing I'm only in charge of running a blog and not, say, a 22-foot diameter, 850-ton tunnel boring machine.) So I'm just going to publish these photos with minimal text. I'll fill in the details later. Warning: If you're not a serious infrastructure geek, you might just want to skip this post altogether.

img_5664-traynor.jpg

Joe Trainor, MTA Capital Construction

16-flights.jpg

Sixteen flights down.

dark-tunnel.jpg

Reminds me of a Merle Travis song.

img_5725-man-car.jpg

The "man car." Not the fanciest press junket.

workers-tunnel.jpg

Heading southbound towards Grand Central.

curve.jpg

Left curve end. Right curve start. 

img_5724-digger.jpg

Digger.

img_5682-welder.jpg

Blow torch.

img_5687-schist.jpg

Manhattan schist.

img_5714-sandhog.jpg

Sandhogs.

img_5703-drilltip.jpg

Drill tip.

img_5695-hoseguy.jpg

 Drill tip and worker.

Back to 63rd Street and 2nd Avenue in all of its sweltering, stylish, SUV-choked glory.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

‘Gateway’ Drug: Trump Is Holding the Second Avenue Subway Hostage

The president block funds for the Second Avenue Subway during the government shutdown in October — and the MTA has still not received the money, sources said.

January 28, 2026

TRAIN IN VAIN: Amtrak Pulls Plug On Metro-North Expansion

All aboard? Not so fast. Amtrak is putting the brakes on an expansion of the Metro-North that would have extended service to Albany.

January 28, 2026

Bushwick Panel Opposes NYPD Cycling Crackdown — But Board Chair Slams Newbies

A community board chair is calling into question the very role of community boards by saying his board doesn't speak for the community. Yes, he said the thinking part out loud.

January 28, 2026

Survey: Most Americans Are Open To Ditching Their Cars

Automakers have spent a century and countless trillions of dollars making car-dependent living the American norm. But U.S. resident still aren't sold, a new survey suggests.

January 28, 2026

Wednesday’s Headlines: Plowed In Edition

It was still a mess out there. Plus other news.

January 28, 2026

Tuesday’s Headlines: The Storm Before the Calm Edition

What a mess (was Gersh actually right?!). Plus other news.

January 27, 2026
See all posts