Updated 11/20/2009 09:17 PM
NY1 Gets Exclusive Look At New Underground Power Line
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Consolidated Edison is giving NY1 an exclusive look at its new underground power line.
It's the first time the utility is allowing a camera in to see the massive project under construction.
The station’s Dean Meminger was lowered in a steel cage by crane about 150-feet underground to get a look at the tunnel, which is designed to bring more electricity to the city from a facility in Yonkers.
The tunnel is about the length of two football fields and will connect the northern tip of Manhattan to the Bronx and provide energy for some 500,000 homes in the area.
"We're going through soil for about 70 feet and then going through rock for another 80 feet,” said Con Edison project specialist Dan Harm. “We then tunnel our way through rock to connect each shaft, all the while under the Harlem River."
"The purpose of the feeder is reliability for New York City,” explained Con Ed Chief Construction Inspector Sara Gherman. “It's going to feed what we call the 179th Street load area or load pocket. It's Upper Manhattan and portions of the Bronx also, and there's also going to be distribution feeders that are mostly going to feed Riverdale."
Construction on the tunnel was started in August 2008 and is expected to be completed in January 2011.
Although there is still some water still dripping into the tunnel, it is being waterproofed.
"We put the waterproofing on top and we weld it to each other. It creates a membrane going down the shaft across the tunnel down to the other shaft," said Gherman.
The tunnel cost about $85 million to build.