MTA work crews tunneling deep under E. 42nd St., part of a project to ease the flow of passengers between Grand Central Station’s 7 train platform and the 4, 5 and 6 trains, have begun the first phase of digging.
The $118.6 million job has been in the works since December 2022, but Monday marked the start of work on an access tunnel meant to thread between the station’s web of subterranean tracks and let workers dig a new passage between the Flushing and Lexington Ave. line platforms without shutting down service to either.
A crew of sandhogs — the specialized workers who bore and blast the tunnel networks that undergird New York City — paused for a Catholic blessing Monday morning before descending three long ladders to a depth of 55 feet below the surface of Lexington Ave.
“Heavenly Father, we pray for your blessing upon this worksite and all the people here,” said the Rev. Brendan Fitzgerald, standing among the sandhogs atop a deep shaft cut into the avenue.
The blessing has become a tradition for the sandhogs, who practice the dangerous craft of drilling, digging and exploding the rock, dirt and sand that hold up the city.
But Fitzgerald, who can ordinarily be found running St. Barnabas Parish in the Bronx, said there was more to the ritual than a prayer for safety.
“One of the big things for me as a Catholic is the dignity of human labor,” he said in an Irish lilt. “I truly believe that when people are at work here, they’re giving glory to God — they’re putting their strength and their head toward the betterment of society.”
Down in the shaft, workers stood on a pile of fractured bedrock and readied two pneumatic drills aimed through thick, black Manhattan schist at the No. 7 train platform across the street.
The drills worked with a hiss and a shudder, making a grid of deep holes into the face of the rock.
“You’ve got to hold on tight,” said Kervin Asson, a sandhog of 15 years who was manning one of the drills. “If you don’t hold on tight, it’ll take you somewhere.”
Another set of tools would soon be lowered into the shaft to chip away at the rock between the holes, before the process would begin again, another worker explained.
The plan is to dig a small access tunnel across 42nd St., and from there begin extending the passageway that currently links the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 platform to the No. 7 platform.
The access tunnel begun Monday will allow work crews to remove rock and other debris without having to shut down the station or disrupt the ordinary flow of passengers through the existing passageway, MTA officials said.
When complete, the extension will end in a new staircase on the eastern side of the No. 7 platform, allowing for a better flow of passengers between the train lines. The station sees an average of 500,000 riders a day, according to the MTA.
“With the added staircase down to the platform you’ll have much more comfortable circulation in Grand Central,” said Matthew Zettwoch, head of the stations division for the MTA’s construction and development department.
In addition to the new passageway and staircase, the project will widen the station’s existing stairwells and improve signage and lighting throughout, as well as install a modern fire alarm system.
Of the $118.6 million budgeted for the project, $74.2 million is earmarked for construction costs. Within that, $40 million is expected to cover the tunneling.
Zettwoch said his team is on track to complete the project by the end of this year.
A separate project is scheduled to bring additional escalators to the station as well.
