Thursday, May 30, 2013

They didn't mention the 2nd ave Subway line...

This is a project that has been going on seemingly for... ever below NYC. The Wired article pasted below seems rather upbeat about its progress, not something many NYC residents (I believe) would agree with. Yes things are happening but I think the real sentiment will change when this 50+ year project has SOME portion that finally opens. One other thing I mentioned in the title of this post, where's the 2nd ave subway mention (which MTA says tunneling is close to completion...)? I feel like that's an even bigger need than LIRR east river access. Do you agree?

Pasted from Wired:


How Engineers Are Building a New Railroad Under New York City

  • BY TIM DE CHANT
  • 6:30 AM
The biggest public transit infrastructure effort in the US is almost completely invisible — unless you’re 160 feet underground. The East Side Access project will connect the Long Island Railroad to New York’s Grand Central Terminal via a massive tunnel under the East River. Actually, that tunnel was the easy part; it was started in 1969. The hard part? “We are building a brand-new railroad here,” says Michael Horodniceanu, president of Metropolitan Transit Authority Capital Construction. When it’s finished in 2019, around 160,000 people will see shorter commutes. But before that, engineers must complete three tricky segments. Here’s how (and where) they’ll do it.
1. Grand Central Terminal
“We are a stealth project when we land in Manhattan,” Horodniceanu says. “No one really knows we are here.” His crews are carving out a terminal beneath Grand Central (above), where twin caverns 1,050 feet long will have eight separate platforms.
2. Northern Boulevard Crossing
To keep the soft ground from collapsing, engineers snaked coils of coolant through the soil to form a protective arch of frozen earth. That let crews work safely while traffic rumbled overhead. Cost: $1 million per foot.
3. The Harold Interlocking
The busiest rail junction in the nation can’t stop for construction. As trains lumber through, crews have been boring the main tunnel below, rerouting and fixing cable and wire as they go. Work there, Horodniceanu says, “is like a dance.”
All photos: Dean Kaufman
Illustration: Brown Bird Design

Friday, May 24, 2013

Who else is rooting for Kimi this weekend?

Everything you'd need to know about the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix courtesy of Jalopnik.


Kimi Räikkönen's F1 page -> http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/drivers/12/

Why Kimi is awesome -> http://jalopnik.com/why-mumbling-weirdo-kimi-raikkonen-is-your-favorite-f1-499979978 

some choice Kimi quotes:

On F1: Driving is the only thing I love about F1.
On Finnish activities: Well, in summer there’s fishing and shagging. And in winter the fishing is bad.
On winning: Yeah, winning feels good, but I’m not the type of guy who jumps up and down and rubs it in everyone’s face.
On why he races: I have decided to do motorsports because I don´t have to get up there so early in the morning.
On his helmet: It protects my head.
On collecting things: I collect walnuts.
On Army service: If the army would be voluntary I wouldn’t go there.
On speaking Italian: You can talk Italian if you want to.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013