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[UPDATE] Watch Out for That Tunnel Boring Machine!
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 8, 2010
Modified Jul 8, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 8, 2010
Modified Jul 8, 2010
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[UPDATE BELOW] It's TBM's Gone Wild over at the Second Avenue Subway project! Earlier this morning this alarming report came over the wires: "Accident | Units Operating With A Subway Boring Machine That Accidently Bored Through 2nd Avenue And Collapsed A Verizon MANHOLE. All Utilities Requested To Respond And Check For Further DAMAGE. Road Closures In EFFECT." As you may recall from our many breathless posts about tunnel boring machines, these suckers are gigantic, and the one drilling the Second Avenue subway is over 300 feet long, weighs 485 tons, and has a blade head that's 22 feet in diameter. You do not want to be in the vicinity when this bad boy goes rogue!
Thankfully, sandhogs were able to lasso the TBM before it bored up through the Papa John's on 90th Street and scarfed down all the pizza pies. MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz tells us, "At about 3 a.m. last night, the contractor drilled a probe hole in the tunnel that curved off and broke through the roadway surface at 90th St. No injuries and the hole was quickly fixed." Frickin' contractors!
UPDATE 3:30 p.m.: Ha, it turns out our little joke about the TBM heading straight for Papa John's wasn't a joke at all. The Post reports that the drill broke ground directly in front of a Papa John’s! But according to Ortiz, there is no cause for alarm because the giant, ravenous drill only opened up a little two inch hole... this time.
Tagged
2nd avenue subway
MTA
tbm
tunnel boring machine
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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