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PCAC goes underground!

PCAC members and staff gather for a briefing on ESA.  Holly Dunayer, LIRR Community Affairs, is second from the right.

On Tuesday, November 3, PCAC Executive Director Bill Henderson, Associate Director Jan Wells and Capital Program Specialist Ellyn Shannon joined six PCAC members for a tour of the East Side Access tunnel work. All three rider councils were represented: Gerry Bringmann and Ira Greenberg from LIRRCC; Jim Blair and Randy Glucksman (nominee) from MNRCC; and Bill Guild and Stuart Goldstein from NYCTRC. Holli Dunayer of LIRR Community Affairs also joined the group. They gathered at 2nd Avenue and 63rd Street in a small temporary facility to hear an informative presentation by Alan Paskoff, Deputy Program Executive for ESA, Capital Construction. Thereafter, the group donned rubber boots, protective glasses, hard hats and reflective vests to begin their descent through the adjacent ventilator building for the 63rd Street East River tunnel. Sixteen flights of stairs later, the group emerged into the surreal world of hard rock caverns filled with water, muck and equipment.

ESA tunnel split looking south

The group rode a worker trolley and then walked through the tunnels until they reached a TBM (tunnel boring machine). The estimated completion date is September 2016. Click here for more pictures.