The MTA has completed blasting beneath Grand Central Terminal, using more than 2,400 controlled explosions to carve out space to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into the station.
When completed in August 2019, the project will have eight tracks for LIRR trains and four extra-wide platforms beneath what is now the Grand Central’s food court.
Extra-steep escalators will take riders down to the space 160 feet below sidewalk level.
The blasting began in 2007 and removed 857,000 cubic yards of muck — enough rocky debris to cover all of Central Park a foot deep. Two 200-ton monster drills also were used to bore through bedrock from 63rd to 37th streets.
“The caverns are essentially now fully excavated,” said Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction.
“Much work remains to be done . . . but we now have a fully built shell in which all future work will take place.”The blasting is a major milestone for the $8.2 billion East Side Access project has been plagued by $3 billion in cost overruns and years of delays.
The MTA said 1,000 employees worked 24 hours a day, five days a week to bore the tunnels.