The first of two Herrenknecht TBMs commissioned for New York’s Q Subway Line has passed its Factory Acceptance Test.
The 7.17m-diameter TBM, designed for the specific geological conditions and operational challenges of Manhattan’s underground environment, will be shipped from Germany to the US early next year.
Connect Plus Partners, a joint venture led by Halmar International, the US subsidiary of Itinera Group, with FCC Construction, will deploy the 123m-long TBM on the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) project will extend the Q train from 116th to 125th Street and deliver new transit access to East Harlem. The 2.56km tunnel will lie between 10.6m and 36.5m below Second Avenue.
Connect Plus Partners will also excavate the cavern for the future 125th Street Station, and in a cost-containment measure that saves the MTA US$500m, will outfit the tunnel along the route that was built in the 1970s to accommodate the future 116th Street Station.
Last month the MTA released the draft scoping document for the planned 125th Street Subway Tunnel Extension. The MTA says the two TBMs that will excavate the Second Avenue Phase 2 tunnels could be redeployed on the 125th Street extension to save money and speed-up tunnel construction.
