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New York City does early planning on next project while contractor finishes tunnel segment
With the completion of excavation below Manhattan's East Side early this month, New York City's epic Third Water Tunnel project passed another milestone. While work continued on 10 shafts along the 8.5-mile-long tunnel section, Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) descended 550 ft to operate the tunnel-boring machine mining out the tunnel's last few inches of granite. The multibillion-dollar project is finally nearing operation. Across the East River, lining and disinfection are continuing in the Brooklyn-Queens portion of the project, with the goal of putting it in service by 2008. The Manhattan section is scheduled to enter service in 2012.
"We finished on time," says Anthony Deldescovo, project manager of the joint venture of Schiavone Construction Co., J.F. Shea Construction Inc. and Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc. that performed the work under a $670-million contract. Excavation began in October 2003 from a point on Manhattan's West Side. Workers assembled the 12.5-ft-dia Robbins hard-rock TBM and its 700 ft of trailing gear in a bell-out at the bottom of a 580-ft-deep shaft. From there it excavated the 3.5-mile leg beneath lower Manhattan.
In 2005 it was backed to...