New video shows water gushing into the Queens-Midtown Tunnel earlier in the week after a hole was mistakenly drilled into it by a subcontractor, and now there is a better sense of what led up to the incident that halted snarled commutes for hours.
Repairs have begun on the tunnel two days after a contractor working for the New York City Economic Development Corporation mistakenly drilled a small hole in the outer casing of the tunnel while doing preliminary work for the East River Esplanade just after noon on Wednesday.
From that 2.5-inch hole on the outside edge of the tunnel, water was able to get into the south tube via the ventilation ducts, a spokesperson for NYC EDC said, and leak onto cars passing through.
Video posted to social media — and confirmed by multiple agencies to be accurate — shows water forcefully shooting through the hole and pouring into the tunnel.
“We are continuing to investigate exactly how and why this occurred,” said Josh Kraus, of NYC EDC.
City officials declined to speak with NBC New York on camera to delve into what went wrong. However, sources said to News 4 that the contractor, New Jersey-based drilling specialist Warren George, told investigators that their barge had drifted 50 feet from where they had initially planned to drill.
That distance might have proven significant, since the tunnel crosses the East River north of where cars enter on East 36th Street — and very close to the barge. Investigators said the contractor drilled 50 feet down into the East River, then another 50 feet through the soil. That’s when the drill cracked the cast-iron liner above the tunnel’s exhaust duct.
That mishap led to several hours of traffic tie-ups between Manhattan and Queens, as the MTA temporarily closed the tunnel and sealed off the leak. A photo shows a portion of the temporary solution put in place.
The city had been conducting what they have called geotechnical work, essentially geared toward finding out how best to support a waterfront park. That would become the final missing piece of a 32-mile greenway around Manhattan.
There is good news: The MTA, which operates the 84-year-old tunnel, said repairs were well underway and could finish as soon as Friday night. And there has been little impact on drivers using the tunnel since Wednesday.
As for how the leak could have happened in the first place? Cathy Sheridan, the president of bridges and tunnels at the MTA, said simply “There are many redundancies in the tunnel. But when someone drills through all those layers — it’s going to cause a leak.”
The Queens Midtown Tunnel was opened in 1940 to help relieve congestion on East River bridges.
