In September 2011, “Adi,” a tunnel-boring machine, broke through at East 63rd Street, completing the Second Avenue subway tunnel.
Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick had HAL 9000. NASA named a treadmill for Stephen Colbert.
And over nearly five years, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has had its fleet of 200-ton tunnel-boring machines, plowing beneath the city in service of the agency’s megaprojects.
They were named for the granddaughter of the transportation authority’s construction chief; named “Molina” because sixth graders liked the name; and, less poignantly, named for the companies that manufactured them. And, when the city says it will fund an extension of a subway line, it is perhaps wise to name two machines after the mayor’s daughters.
On Monday, the last machine, Molina, completed its run beneath the Long Island Rail Road’s Main Line in Long Island City, Queens, as part of the so-called East Side Access project, which will connect the commuter rails in Queens to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
The transportation authority said that with Molina’s journey complete, all tunnel boring for its major projects had been finished.
“Sixteen brand new, concrete-lined tunnels now exist under New York City where none did five years ago,” Joseph J. Lhota, the agency’s chairman, said in a statement. “The conclusion of tunnel boring reminds us that New Yorkers remain capable of great achievements.”
For seven machines, the end of tunnel boring has also meant new destinations or, in some cases, a final resting place. Molina is being scrapped, as is TESS (for Tunnel Excavation Sunnyside), another machine used for the East Side Access project; both were named by sixth graders at Intermediate School 204 in Long Island City.
Georgina and Emma, named for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s daughters, were dismantled after finishing their runs beneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal in 2010 as part of a city-funded extension of the No. 7 line.
Two more East Side Access machines, Robbins and Seli, named for their manufacturers, also completed work in 2010. Robbins was dismantled and removed by contractors. Seli was buried beneath Park Avenue near East 37th Street.
Adi, named for the granddaughter of Michael Horodniceanu, the agency’s president of capital construction, ended its work for the Second Avenue subway line in September 2011. After reaching East 63rd Street, it was refurbished and shipped to Indianapolis for another project.
