MTA Signs Second Ave. Subway Contract

The first expansion of the subway system in more than 50 years yesterday took one step closer to becoming a reality. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority signed a $337 million contract to begin construction on the twotrack Second Avenue Subway line, which will eventually run to the financial district from 125th Street along Manhattan's East Side.

The new contract allows construction teams to begin digging between 92nd and 95th Streets in April. A 250-foot-long tunnel-boring machine will be lowered into the three block hole, from where it will carve out the first stretch of the subway line, which will run between 92nd and 63rd streets, and is scheduled for completion by 2013.

"You will soon see our construction teams hard at work on and under Second Avenue," the president of capital construction at the MTA, Mysore Nagaraja, said in a statement.

The contract was paid for through federal grants and MTA capital funds.