East Side Access tunnel borers unveiled

The LIRR took another step Friday in its most ambitious project in decades when it dedicated the two tunnel-boring machines that will dig the final pathway connecting the railroad to Manhattan's East Side.

MTA executives unveiled two 642-ton machines at a ceremony in Long Island City, Queens, where work will begin digging four tunnels to connect the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line to an existing tunnel under the East River leading to Grand Central Terminal.

The machines, which will dig out 22-foot-diameter tunnels and install concrete rings along the way, were named Tess and Molina by sixth-graders at IS 204 in Long Island City.

The tunnel work will begin next month, and this portion of the project is expected to be finished by the end of 2012. The machines have 10,500 feet of soil, sand, clay and boulders to bore out, and move about 25 feet a day, LIRR officials said.

LIRR president Helena Williams said the East Side Access project, which promises to give 160,000 commuters a single-seat ride to Manhattan's East Side, is the LIRR's "moon shot."

"One day in the not too distant future, a conductor will say eight magic words that have never been spoken on Long Island: 'This is the train to Grand Central Terminal,' " Williams said.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials say the new rail corridor to Grand Central will save commuters as much as 40 minutes of travel time each day. They will arrive at a 10-block-long, 350,000-square-foot LIRR customer concourse.

The MTA has budgeted $7.3 billion for the project and set a completion date of 2016. But federal transportation officials have said they think the actual cost would be $8.1 billion, and that the project would not be completed until 2018.