Despite 80 Degree Heat, It's Cold Underground
New York, NY —
The weather's getting warmer, except in one part of Manhattan. The MTA has been freezing a two-block section of earth far underneath 11th Avenue to make it easier to drill a tunnel for the Number 7 subway extension. The head of the MTA's capital construction company, Michael Horodniceanu, says that tubes have been bringing a super cooled solution made of salt water to the site 120 feet underground.
HORODNICEANU: It will create in effect a similar effect as if it was rock so the machine will be able to push through and then that will be able to come in with the segments and support it.
Most of the subway extension will be drilled through hard rock. But a softer 350-foot section between 26th and 28th Streets requires this special treatment. MTA officials say freezing the ground will cost $18 million.
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