We’ve followed the $10.8 billion East Side Access project, which will extend the Long Island Railroad from Queens to Grand Central, all year. But now that the tunnels have been blasted, new machines are arriving—and they’re just as cool as the tunnel borers.
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At its peak, the Berlin Wall was 100 miles long. Today only about a mile is left standing. Compared with other famous walls in history, this wall had a pretty short life span.
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Here in the U.S., the arrival of a new tunnel boring machine is huge news, warranting naming ceremonies
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Washington D.C. is overflowing with crap—and not just the sort spewed in Congress. Rather, its ancient sewage system regularly overflows, sending a literal river of poo into the city’s waterways. Lady Bird is the name of the giant tunneling machine sent to stop it.
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What do you do with a bomb shelter when you’re no longer getting Blitzed by the Nazis? For decades, Londoners have searched for ways to make use of old bomb shelters lurking deep underground. They’ve become data centers, dusty storage rooms, and, now, the first underground urban farm—thanks to a couple of foodie entrepreneurs and a Michelin-star chef.
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Now that we know it was an eight-inch steel pipe that brought the world’s largest-diameter tunneling machine to a halt
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Deep beneath the streets of San Francisco, Mom Chung is making her move. In July, the massive tunnel boring machine (TBM) started construction on the Central Subway, the city’s brand-spanking new subterranean transit line (ETA 2019).
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Driving is slowly killing us, a freeway expansion uncovers geological treasures, Londoners protest the city’s poor cycling conditions, what dive bar bathrooms can tell us about our neighborhood, and a quick look at San Francisco’s real underground (not BART). All in this week’s urban reads.
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Sure, this 2,000 square-foot, no-windows, no-view property is a bit of a fixer-upper. But think of the Halloween parties you could throw down here! This set of 200-year old tunnels beneath the British port city of Plymouth are going up for auction next month for the low-low price of $30,590.
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In honor of the rediscovery of New York City’s long-lost cow tunnels, we asked you to photoshop up some other goodies that might be hiding right beneath our feet. A lot of them involved poop.
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