Since our last update earlier this month, the project team has continued to remove ballast from the tunnel and conduct other demolition work needed to remove everything down to the tunnel liner.

Crews are using mini excavators to load material into tunnel-accessible dump trucks, which transfer the ballast to larger trucks outside for disposal. With ballast removal nearly complete, focus has begun shifting to the next major effort of this work phase – bench wall demolition.

Selective demolition is ongoing at targeted locations along the bench wall to allow access to decommissioned cables embedded within the bench walls themselves. This work is a necessary precursor to full bench wall removal, providing a preview and fully preparing crews for this complex work that will take place along the full 2-mile-long tunnel, over the next few months.

To ensure the safety of workers during demolition activities, silica dust and other airborne hazards must be mitigated. As you can see in one photo below, demolition work safety mitigations include individual respirators, and in a separate photo you can see another one of our worksite mitigation installations – a water misting apparatus that’s quite effective at limiting the spread of dust.

Away from the tunnel itself, construction also advanced at multiple priority sites. At First Avenue, crews advanced work for a new signal hut foundation; at 32nd Street, structural work on a new stair tower is on track for completion soon, which will improve site access and ventilation; and at New York Penn Station, a 55-hour service outage on two tracks enabled installation of new signal power cables.