NYC Eastside Access Part 1: Most Expensive Transportation Project in US History
Released on 05/08/2013
(explosion)
[Narrator] 150 feet below Grand Central Terminal
there's another terminal being created
to bring the Long Island Railroad
into Grand Central Terminal area in New York City.
I've been working underground since 1966, 40 some-odd years.
The appearance of the underground area is
wet, dark, dank, noisy, smelly,
mostly from diesel fuels or the powder residue
from explosives.
(sparks)
(explosion)
(high pitched tone)
The dangers that everybody deals with underground
are, first of all, collapse.
That's the most inherent danger of the underground industry.
As rock stands for a period of time it tends to relax
and it tends to get loose, and it tends to fall out.
It has to be watched constantly.
It's not a good environment to be lax.
You have to be on your toes all the time.
You have to be well aware of what's going on around you,
and what people are doing next to you,
and what you're doing next to them.
You're dealing with people who you're depending on
and who are depending on you,
and that gives the sense of satisfaction and camaraderie
that typical day-to-day offices jobs don't have.
The technology now certainly speeds things up
as far as production.
Back 40 years ago, the equipment was more primitive
and probably 400 years ago it was even
more primitive than that when they did tunnels,
and if you go all the way back to the Romans
when they did tunnels they just heated the rock
and threw water on it and fractured it.
So, tunneling isn't a new experience;
it's been around for a long time.
All the workers underground, with the exception
of the operating engineers, are sandhogs.
Whatever goes on underground the sandhogs do it.
Even if you're not a rough, tough person
you have to become that way or at least become
steeled to the fact that everybody around you is.
And you may not wanna be, but if you want to work there
you have to kinda fit in.
They have to be rough and tough.
They have to be gruff. They have to work hard.
They have to listen to people scream and holler
because screaming and hollering over the noises down there
is the only way to communicate.
Every day that we go home and say that
we didn't cause anyone else to get hurt
is a good day.
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NYC Eastside Access Part 1: Most Expensive Transportation Project in US History
NYC Eastside Access Part 2: Most Expensive Transportation Project in US History