Phase 2 of the Second Avenue Subway is finally moving dirt. The MTA broke ground in East Harlem after awarding a $1.02 billion tunneling contract to a joint venture of Skanska, Traylor Bros., and Walsh, the biggest single package in a program that extends the Q train north from 96th Street to 125th. The project revives a line New Yorkers were first promised in the 1920s.
What the contract covers
The JV’s scope runs to structural tie-ins with the Phase 1 tunnels, cut-and-cover station boxes, utility relocation, and roadway decking along a corridor packed with buses and traffic. Three stations are planned at 106th, 116th, and 125th streets, the last turning west under 125th to a terminal at Lexington Avenue. As IRJ reported, the award ends months of uncertainty over when heavy work would actually start.
Why East Harlem has waited so long
Phase 1 opened in 2017 and stopped at 96th Street. Phase 2 pushes into one of Manhattan’s most transit-dependent neighborhoods, where subway access thins out fast. The budget leans on the FTA’s Capital Investment Grants program, so the groundbreaking doubles as a test of whether large urban transit expansions can still clear federal cost review.
Tunneling ramps up through 2027. If the schedule holds, East Harlem gets its first new subway stations in a century.