A tunnel-boring machine completed digging the first leg of the $7.2 billion Long Island Rail Road link to Grand Central Station, the MTA announced yesterday.
Another 2-ton machine should complete a second tunnel by the end of this summer.
“We look forward to inaugurating Long Island Rail Road service at Grand Central Terminal – a dream many have shared for generations,” said MTA chief Elliot Sander.
After several delays, the project is slated to finish in 2015.
“Even tougher than tunneling through bedrock is tunneling through the public skepticism that these projects will ever get done,” said Gene Russianoff, of the Straphangers Campaign.