LIRR East River tunnel taking shape

Four years and $5 billion after digging began 160 feet underground, there is light at the end of the tunnel -- literally -- for the Long Island Rail Road's East Side Access project to Grand Central Terminal.

The progress on the largest current construction project in the United States means it is already possible to ride a train of sorts by LIRR rail tunnel from Queens to midtown Manhattan's East Side.

It will be at least another five years before commuters can make that trip, but a group of Newsday journalists recently took a subterranean journey on a small "miner's train" as part of a Metropolitan Transportation Authority tour. The 7-mile trip began in the Sunnyside rail yard and crossed through the 63rd Street tunnel below the East River, then turned south under Park Avenue to 48th Street, short of Grand Central.

"You're starting to see the shape of the whole thing," LIRR President Helena Williams said. "It's just incredible to sort of see things from a historical perspective. We'll be old people telling our kids, 'I remember.' "

When done, East Side Access will give the nation's largest commuter railroad a second Manhattan terminal -- and Long Island commuters a ride directly to one of the country's busiest office districts. The project expects to save 160,000 commuters about 40 minutes of travel time a day and boost commerce in Manhattan and on Long Island.

But it isn't coming easy. In a 60-foot-deep canyon near the train yard, and in a hazy cavern below Park Avenue, some 2,000 workers toil six days a week to mold from stone and silt a complex network of tunnels spanning 8 miles.

In Queens, two tunnel-boring machines, each weighing nearly 700 tons, have begun digging the final tunnels, which will go beneath the Sunnyside yards, the Northeast's busiest railroad junction, before connecting to the LIRR's Main Line toward Jamaica. To dig underneath Northern Boulevard, workers must prop up the street.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

To cut through the soft, clay-like material, workers have to freeze the ground in sections. It is an effort that involves having workers squeeze into tight spaces between the boring machine and the earth ahead to make sure the blades are functioning properly. Because the tiny space is pressurized, workers must be rotated out every three hours so as not to get the decompression sickness known as "the bends."

Eight tunnels below Grand Central have already been drilled out. But the work is far from complete. Hundreds of "sandhogs," as the tunnel workers are known, scurry through knee-deep muck working to complete the many tasks ahead.

Beams from helmet lanterns cut through misty air to reveal a steeply inclined, 150-foot long wellway. It is the future home of a high-speed escalator that will carry LIRR riders from a 350,000-square-foot concourse to station platforms.

Even when the bulk of the construction is done, several pieces will still need to be put in place. They include signal systems and several other projects to add capacity to the existing LIRR system.

While the task ahead is clear, how it will be paid for is not. The $7.3-billion project is funded only through the end of this year. To meet its 2016 target date, the MTA hopes the state comes through with more than $2 billion yet to be allocated.

"It is critical that the project stay on track, timewise," said MTA Capital Construction President Michael Horodniceanu.

William Henderson, executive director of the MTA's Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee, said the authority's reputation among some state lawmakers as wasteful could lead to resistance. But pulling the plug on the project "is not an option," he said, given the $2 billion of federal funds already committed and all the construction jobs counting on it.

EAST SIDE ACCESS:

What's done:

What's left to do: