NYMTA Approves Tunnel-Boring Contract For Second Avenue Subway Phase 2

The contract, valued at $1.972 billion, is being awarded to Connect Plus Partners, a joint venture between Halmar International and FCC Construction. It is the second of four construction contracts for the Q train extension. Despite New York City’s high construction costs, the MTA says, the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2’s cost-benefit “is significant and is projected to have the lowest cost per rider of any active heavy rail project in the country.”

According to the agency, this new tunnel will extend from 116^th Street to 125^th Street. Crews under this contract will also excavate space for the future 125^th Street Station, and in a “cost-containment measure that saves the MTA $500 million,” will outfit the tunnel along the route that was built in the 1970s to accommodate the future 116^th Street Station.

The work to bore the new tunnel, between 35 and 120 feet below Second Avenue, is expected to take place using 750-ton machines equipped with 22-foot diamond-studded drill heads. Early work will commence later this year, with heavy civil construction starting in early 2026 and the tunnel boring itself expected to begin in 2027, according to the MTA.

The line’s first construction contract was awarded in January 2024 for utility relocation work. Crews working under that contract are relocating underground utilities from 105^th Street to 110^th Street on Second Avenue at the site of the future 106^th Street Station, in order to facilitate the subsequent construction of the station. 

Crews working under the third contract will build the underground space for the future station at 106^th Street and Second Avenue. That contract is currently in procurement. The fourth and final contract will cover the fit-out of the three stations, at 106^th, 116^th, and 125^th Streets, and the systems needed to run train service, such as track, signal, power and communications. This contract is currently in design.

According to the MTA, the Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 is on schedule with a revenue service date of September 2032, and on budget. The project budget is $6.99 billion and is funded in part by revenues from the Congestion Relief Zone tolling program. 

“This is a meaningful step forward not only for the project but everyone in East Harlem and Central Harlem. Locals have waited almost 100 long years for their promised subway extension,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Thanks to investments from Governor Hochul and our partners in Washington, today the new MTA is moving forward with the largest tunneling contract in agency history, but—more important—with a project that pencils at the lowest cost per rider of any heavy rail project in America.”

Further Reading:

• NYMTA Kicks Off Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 Project
• Now Advancing: New York’s Second Avenue Subway Phase 2