Ground has officially been broken on the major construction stage of the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project.
To mark the beginning of construction, ground was broken at the location where, in early 2027, a tunnel boring machine (TBM) will be lowered into the ground and begin its journey mining new subway tunnels from 120 Street and 2nd Avenue to 125 Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.
During the event, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has awarded the next major contract to construct the final tunnel section of this phase from 105 Street to 110 Street, including the future 106 St Station, using a “cut and cover” approach.
The MTA has stated that it intends to apply lessons learnt from Phase 1 of the project to deliver over 1 billion USD in savings, and is on track to complete advanced utility relocations early, allowing work on the project to start six months faster than originally scheduled.
Governor Hochul said:The Second Avenue Subway will change everything for East Harlem, saving people precious time and making possible opportunities that have for too long been out of reach for too many.
The last groundbreaking for a second avenue subway in East Harlem was 54 years ago, only for the project to be abandoned and this community left behind.
When I became Governor, I promised that I would be the leader to finally get this done, and by breaking ground on the major construction phase of this project, we are one giant step closer to realising a dream nearly a century in the making.
All-new TBMs will be delivered early 2027, and, weighing more than one million and a half pounds in weight, will launch from the 120 Street site and travel to 125 Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.
Governor Hochul and the MTA have already begun scoping and designing a potential next phase of the Q train westward across 125th St to Broadway with three new stations and more than 160,000 daily riders.
Following the completion of an MTA feasibility study in 2024; this year’s FY27 enacted state budget secured 25 million USD to conduct preliminary engineering and design of a tunnel extension, as well as approval of an efficient environmental review process and if the project is advanced, work on the tunnel could continue seamlessly using much of the same equipment from phase 2 in an effort to save both time and money.
The Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project has been divided into four separate contracts – as opposed to the 10 in Phase 1 – in an effort to increase project efficiency whilst minimising contractor coordination.
Tunnel boring is part of Contract 2, which has been valued at 1.97 billion USD and includes shaft excavation for the TBM, controlled blasting for future stations and asbestos and lead abatement in the existing 1970s tunnels.
During the groundbreaking for Phase 2; the MTA and Governor Hochul announced progress on another major component of its completion: the award of Contract 3.
Contract 3 will construct the structural shells of the new 106 St Station and associated tunneling, connecting the existing tunnels north and south of the station, which the contractor is expected to begin work in the coming months.
The entire Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project is budgeted at 6.968 billion USD, and is on track for revenue service in 2032.
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said:It was 80 years ago they started knocking down the Second Avenue El -- an entire lifetime.
Today's groundbreaking is another major step toward transit justice for East Harlem, the City's most transit-dependent community.
