NEW YORK CITY SECOND AVENUE SUBWAY TUNNEL

Alaeden Jlelaty, Senior Project Manager, Skanska USA Civil, New York City, NY, USA
E-Mail Address: Alaeden.Jlelaty@Skanska.com

Abstract: The Second Avenue Subway will be a new line extending approximately 8.5 miles
along Manhattan’s East Side from 125th Street in Upper Manhattan to Hanover Square
Lower Manhattan. The first construction contract was awarded to S3 (Skanska, Schiavone
and Shea Joint Venture) in March 2007, which includes construction of a Launch Box for the
tunnel boring machine (TBM) between 92nd Street and 95th Street and the bored tunnels
from 63rd Street to 92nd Street. The Launch Box excavation is 55 to 65 feet deep, occupying
the whole width of 2nd Avenue and is constructed by cut-and-cover method. The southern
half of 96th Street Station is also constructed within the Launch Box excavation. This paper
discusses the critical geotechnical design considerations, construction constraints and
challenges of the construction of the Launch Box. These include the challenges of
maintaining the traffic and utilities at 2nd Avenue while constructing the Launch Box,
selection of the support of excavation systems and construction sequence, and maintaining
base stability of the excavation in the varved Silt/Sand Stratum. It also discusses the
predicted and measured movement of the support of excavation wall.

I INTRODUCTION
The proposed Second Avenue Subway is a new two-track subway line running from
125th Street and Park Avenue at the north, east along 125th Street to Second
Avenue and south along Second Avenue to the Financial District in lower Manhattan,
with sixteen new stations and 8.5 miles of track. The project has been broken into
four construction phases. The initial Phase 1 operating segment includes three new
stations (96th, 86th and 72nd Street Stations) with a connection to the existing
Broadway line at the 63rd Street Station at Lexington Avenue. Rehabilitation of the
63rd Street Station is also included in the scope of Phase 1. Subsequent phases
extend service north and west to 125th Street (Phase 2), south to Houston Street
(Phase 3) and finally to Hanover Square (Phase 4).

In April 2007, NYCT awarded a contract to S3 Tunnel Constructors, a tri-venture

comprised of the firms of Skanska USA Civil, Schiavone and Shea, for the
construction of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Launch Box and the mining of the
TBM tunnels from 92nd Street to 63rd Street. The major part of the contract is to
construct a shaft, commonly referred to as the Launch Box, from 92nd St to 95th
Street having dimensions of 800’ long by 62’ wide and a depth of 65’, including over
119,000 cubic yards of soil and rock contained within its walls. The Launch Box will
ultimately become the southern half of the 96th Street Station. This paper presents
the geological conditions at the Launch Box, the selection and design of the support
of excavation systems, and the challenges of constructing the Launch Box.
 Figure 1: Second Avenue Subway Design and Construction Phase Plan

nd rd th th
92 93 94 95
Street Street Street Street

TBM LAUNCH BOX

Figure 2: Plan View of the TBM Launch Box at 2nd Avenue

II CONSTRUCTION STAGING AND UTILITY CONSTRAINTS

The necessary work for the Launch Box is broken down and sequenced into several
major tasks that ensure safe and efficient execution of the job. The first aspect of
the work involves changing the maintenance and protection of traffic (MPT) layout
on 2nd Avenue to allow for an active construction zone to operate in the center of
the busy community with constant interaction of the 2nd Avenue vehicle and
pedestrian traffic. The project must have an in-depth traffic monitoring program,
including maintaining 4 traffic lanes on 2nd Avenue as well as keeping all cross streets
open (at least 12’ wide). Additionally, a 7’ wide sidewalk on both the east and west
side must be maintained at all times so that the buildings’ accessibility is never
compromised. In order to achieve this, the pre-existing 20’ sidewalk is replaced with
a 7’ sidewalk and an additional lane of traffic. With this done, 4 traffic lanes on one
side of the avenue can be closed down and have a 39’ wide work zone for the length
of the Launch Box. This allows work to begin at the Launch Box to relocate the
utilities, construct the support of excavation (SOE) walls, and install the decking
system. Once work is temporarily completed on one side of the avenue, that
construction zone can be backfilled and paved so as to divert the vehicle traffic on
the newly paved road to begin work on the opposite side. By using this type of
staging, works on both the east and west sides of the Launch Box can be constructed
efficiently while maintaining traffic on the active New York City Avenue. This MPT
format is kept throughout the construction of this contract to ensure the continued
activity of the neighborhood.

Figure 3a: MPT on 2nd Avenue – Cross Section Figure 3b: Photo of MPT

The other major aspect of works prior to the construction of the Launch Box is the
utility relocation scheme. The dense web of pre-existing utilities that existed within
the top 15 feet of the launch box consisted not only of service lines to each of the
adjacent buildings for the 4 city blocks, but also held the immense trunk lines that
fed the rest of the city’s grid. The utility network underneath 2nd Avenue has been
constantly changed and added to over the last 100 years, leading to many of the
utilities being extremely feeble and laid in an overly intricate network of
connections. The major theme for this substantial utility relocation was to re-route
all the utilities feeding the buildings to either side of the shaft and to build new
major utility mains to connect to the city trunk lines that will be hung temporarily
under the decking system for the duration of the project.

Initially, an 8’ wide by 8’ deep pre-trench was excavated to clear a path around the
Launch Box where the SOE walls would later be constructed. The purpose of this
trench is to breakdown and relocate all of the existing electric and ECS duct banks
away from the SOE wall. This pre-trench is essential in identifying interferences and
problem areas that aren’t accounted for in the design. Once the pre-trench was
completed, the utility work under the adjacent sidewalks was constructed to
maintain the sewer, gas, water, ECS and electric lines.
 Figure 4a: Utility Works Figure 4b: Utility Works

II GEOLOGICAL CONDITONS

At the Launch Box, the bedrock consists of the Manhattan schist, calcareous rocks of
the Inwood Marble and Fordham Gneiss. Manhattan schists are typically crystalline
variations of essentially quartz and mica composition with quartz and feldspar rich
zones, garnetiferous biotite and muscovite mica schist, quartz-hornblende-mica-
garnet schists, and chlorite schists.

The top of bedrock slopes down from slopes down from 10 feet deep below ground
surface at the south end of the Launch Box at 92nd street to more than 200 feet
deep below ground surface at the north end of the Launch Box at 95th street. The
rock mass contains regularly spaced faults, fault clusters and shear zones associated
with the major Manhattanville Fault. The rocks are a complex intercalation of highly
to extremely abrasive schist, amphibolite, pegmatite and granofels.

The typical RQD value for the unfaulted rock mass is 60% to 100% and joints are
closely to moderately spaced but occur in widely to very widely spaced clusters. In
general the joint surfaces are smooth to rough, fresh to slightly weathered. In the
fault affected rock mass the RQD values are approximately 50% to 80% with locally
lower values between 0% and 25%.

The bedrock surface was planed by the Pleistocene glaciers removing most of the
decomposed to weathered rock, leaving behind a thin mantle of dense till and
remnants of decomposed to weathered rock at some locations. Above the basal till
lies a mixture of glacial, interglacial and postglacial materials. The glacial deposits
can generally be divided into three groups, glacial till, outwash/reworked till deposits
and lake deposits of silt/clay, varved silt/clay and silty sand. However, the
stratification is complex and significant variations in the thickness and location of the
individual units are common. Boundaries between strata are not clearly defined in
many cases and considerable interlayering of the glacial materials is observed. This
 heterogeneity is typical of glacial depositional environments found at the rear of a
terminal moraine. In these environments, different processes of deposition occur
during cyclical periods of advance and recession of the ice front because prior
deposits are reworked and new materials are deposited. Overlying the glacial
deposits is a layer of manmade fill material. North of 92nd street, organic silt
deposits can be found between the fill and the glacial deposits, which were formed
by postglacial streams and creeks in marshy or swampy lowland areas.

The stratigraphy at the Launch Box is very complex due to varying rock level and the
Launch Box is located at the edge of the glacial deposits. The stratigraphy south of
94th street is summarized in Table 1.

Stratum Stratum Elevation (NYCT Datum)

West Side East Side
Fill +117 to +90 +117 to +90
Organics +90 to +86 +90 to + 86
Silty Sand +86 to +80 +86 to +78
Silt/Clay +80 to +35 +78 to +25
Decomposed Rock None +25 to +1
Top of Rock +35 +1
Table 1: Soil Stratigraphy at the Launch Box south of 94th Street

The groundwater levels measured from observation wells and piezometers vary
between elevation +105 and elevation +98.

A summary of the soil design parameters used in the design of the support of
excavation systems is presented in Table 2 below.

Sand/Silty Decomposed
Parameter Fill Organics Silt /Clay Till
Sand Rock
Total Unit weight:
120 110 120 125 134 138
above GWT (pcf) (ϒ):
below GWT (pcf) (ϒ): 125 110 127 125 134 138
Maximum angle of
shearing resistance (ø’ 30 25 33 32 36 38
in degrees):
Drained cohesion (c' in
0 0 0 0 0 0
ksf)
Undrained Shear
strength (Su in ksf) - 0.325σvo' - - - -
Table 2: Design Soil Parameters
III LAUNCH BOX – SOUTH SEGMENT

The south segment of the launch box is located from 92nd street to 93rd street
where the depth of the rock is at or above the future station invert slab. The
excavation depth varies from 60 feet to 65 feet and the width of excavation is 66
feet, and both soil and rock are excavated. The future station box will be
constructed by bottom-up method, with temporary earth support walls, bracings
and rock supports to retain the soil and rock during excavation, and a permanent
cast-in-place concrete walls and slabs will be constructed within the excavation in a
different contract.

Figure 5: Cross Section of the Launch Box – South Segment

A. Support of Excavation
Temporary secant pile walls are used to retain the soil excavation. The secant pile
diameter is 3 feet 10 ½ inches at 3 feet centers, with 10 ½ inches overlapping
between the primary and secondary piles. The wall extends from ground surface to
2 feet into rock. Typically, the secondary piles are reinforced with W30 steel core
beams and the primary piles are unreinforced. In a 40 feet zone where local deep
rock zone is encountered, W30 steel core beams are installed in both the primary
and secondary piles. In order to drill these piles, initial reinforced concrete guide
walls are created and then drilling machinery (Bauer BG40) is used to drill and place
the secants as deep as 80 feet.

The secant pile walls are laterally supported by one to three levels of temporary
steel bracings. The top level of bracing is also used to support the vertical traffic deck
load, and consists of W36 steel sections at 10 feet centers. The second and third
levels bracings consist of 24 inches to 36 inches diameter steel pipes, 7/8 inch to 1
inch thick, at 20 feet centers, and double W36 steel sections as walers. Rock anchors
are also installed at the toe of the secant pile walls prior to excavation of rock in
front of the walls.

For rock excavation, the rock face is supported by 12 foot long swellex rock bolts at
6’x6’ staggered grid.

B. Rock Removal

Rock at the Launch Box is excavated by controlled blasting. In order to limit vibration
effects to existing buildings adjacent to the Launch Box, line drilling with 4 ¾ inches
diameter holes at 9 inches centers was carried out at the perimeter of the Launch
box prior to any blasting. Typical blast holes spacing is 18 inches x 18 inches x 3 feet
deep.

C. TBM Starter Tunnels

At the southern end of the Launch Box, the TBM will be launched in the rock and
bored southwardly. Two starter tunnels are constructed to accommodate the TBM.
The starter tunnels are 40 feet deep, and the crown of the starter tunnels are
grouted and are supported by steel spling at 2 foot centers. A north-south sections
showing the temporary support works at the starter tunnel is shown in Figure 6
below.

Figure 6 – North South Section at the TBM Starter Tunnels

 Figure 7: Photo of the TMB Starter Tunnels

IV LAUNCH BOX – NORTH SEGMENT

The north segment of the launch box is located between 93rd street and 95th street
where the depth of the rock is below the future station invert slab. The excavation
depth varies from 55 feet to 60 feet and the width of excavation is 57 feet.
Reinforced concrete slurry walls are constructed as earth support walls to support
the excavation, which are also used as the permanent retaining walls of the Station
box. The slurry walls are supported by temporary lateral steel bracing during
excavation, and permanent cast-in-place slabs of the station box will be constructed
bottom up.

Figure 8: Cross Section of the Launch Box – North Segment

A. Permanent Slurry Wall
Reinforced concrete slurry walls, 42 inches thick, are used as earth support wall to
support the excavation as well as the permanent retaining wall of the Station box.
The slurry walls are designed using finite element soil-structure interaction analyses
with the following loading conditions:

• Excavation/Construction Stages
The loads are determined by staged construction soil-structure interaction
analysis which models the proposed excavation and bracing sequence, as well as
the sequence of constructing the permanent underground structure and
removing the temporary bracing. The existing building surcharges, street and
sidewalk live loads, and the groundwater seepage are also modeled in the
analyses.
• Final Condition
Loads in this case are continuation of the Excavation/Construction Stages
analysis with ‘at rest’ earth soil pressure on both sides of structure and live loads
in internal slabs
• Unbalanced Pressure (Non-Seismic)
Loads in this condition are continuation of the Excavation/Construction Stages
analysis with the existing building surcharge, and sidewalk load surcharge
removed, and changing to “at rest” earth soil pressure on one side of structure.
• Final Condition with Seismic Loads
Loads in this case are continuation of the Final Condition analysis and imposing
soil-structure interaction analysis to evaluate the dynamic forces generated.
First, a free-field soil deformation due to the seismic event is derived from 1-D
response analysis integrating the peak shear strains in each layer from the
bottom to the top of the profile. This soil deformation is then input into the
finite element program with the side boundaries being set to deflect by the same
amount as the free-field soil deformation, and a pseudo-static horizontal
acceleration applied to the soil mass. The shear moduli of the soil strata are
adjusted such that the soil deflects laterally the same amount as that of the one
dimensional response analysis. An example of the deformed shape of the soil
mass in the finite element analysis is shown in Figure 9.
After establishing the horizontal acceleration and the shear moduli of the soil
strata, in the finite element model to obtain the deformed shape, an analysis is
carried out from the Final Condition with the determined horizontal acceleration
and shear moduli in the soil mass, and the forces generated in the structure due
to earthquake loads can be determined. An example of the deformed shape of
the soil mass considering the stiffness of the structure is shown in Figure 10.
 Station box structure Soil profile

Imposed displacement at the sides

Imposed displacement at the sides

Imposed displacement at the sides

Imposed horizontal acceleration

Figure 9: Deformed Shape of Soil Mass in Finite Figure 10: Deformed Shape of
Soil Element Analysis Mass in Finite Element Analysis
Incorporating the Stiffness of the
Structure

Besides the soil-structure interaction analyses, the slurry walls are also designed
using structural frame analyses. The details design loading conditions and
procedures for the structural frame analyses are covered in the New York City
Transit “DG452A – Structural Design Guidelines – Subway and Underground
Structures”

The Station invert, mezzanine, and roof slabs will be constructed bottom-up in
another contract. The connections between the slurry wall and the invert slab, and
between the slurry wall and the roof slab are designed as fixed connections, while
the mezzanine slab/wall connections are designed as pinned connections. At the
slab locations, couplers are installed within the slurry wall rebar cage to allow future
connections to the slabs. Figure 11 shows a typical fixed connection detail of the
slurry wall and the invert slab.

Figure 11: Typical Slurry Wall / Invert Slab Connection Detail

Where the rock is less then 40 feet below the invert slab, the slurry wall is keyed one
foot into rock. Where the rock is very deep, the slurry wall is constructed with a toe
embedment of 40 feet below the invert slab. The embedment depth is designed to
support the downward load form the traffic loading and the temporary bracings; to
resist the permanent upward loads due to the buoyant forces acting on the station
box; to maintain the lateral wall toe stability during the excavation; and to maintain
excavation base stability due to water seepage from below the wall.

The dewatering is being performed using an ejector system consist of the following
components:

- 50 ejector wells installed on the interior of the excavation support on

approximately 25-30 ft centers along the secant piles wall and slurry wall.
These wells extend from ground surface to within five feet of the bottom of
the excavation support system or the top of rock, whichever is higher.
- High pressure supply and low pressure return piping form a pump station to
the individual wells.
- Ejector pump station.

Dewatering System Diagram

The stratified silt and silty fine sands on site required dewatering in order to provide
pressure relief of the layers below subgrade. Excavation was done to elevation 60,
roughly 40 feet below the observed groundwater level. Although these soils are
encompassed within the perimeter walls, the soil is highly sensitive to water and the
“Bull’s Liver” material must be predrained prior to excavation with a vacuum type
dewatering system. Ejector wells drilled from within the excavation support system
to a depth of five feet from the bottom of the excavation support or the top or rock,
whichever is higher was used to perform the required dewatering / pressure relief.
Ejectors are well suited for pumping the low yields expected from each well while
applying vacuum to the soils.

The discharge from the dewatering system is being directed to a combined sewer
along 96th street under a discharge permit issued by New York City DEP.

Ejector Head Detail

The slurry walls are excavated 60 to over 100 feet deep into the ground. First, guide
walls are created to ensure consistent placement throughout the installation. A
clam bucket is then used to excavate the wall panel in the soil along the perimeter of
the shaft, supporting by slurry mixture (polymer slurry and bentonite slurry). Once
excavated, a large rebar cage (some up to 95’ long by 10’ wide) is lifted by crawler
cranes (Liebherr 885/855) and placed within the trench. Concrete is then pumped
into the slurry-filled trench from the bottom, displacing all of the slurry as it rises.
The wall panel was constructed with Leffer stop ends, with permanent water stops
left-in-place between the slurry wall panels.
Figure 12: Photo of Slurry Wall Rebar Figure 13: Photo of the Slurry Wall
Cage Installation End Stop with Water Stop

Figure 14: Slurry Wall Clam Bucket

B. Temporary Bracing

During excavation, the slurry walls are supported by three levels of temporary lateral
steel bracings. The top level of bracing is also used to support the vertical traffic deck
load, and consists of W36 steel sections at 10 feet centers. The second and third
levels bracings consist of 36 inches diameter, 1 inch to 1 ½ inches thick, steel pipes at
20 feet centers, and with double W36 steel sections as walers. All the steel pipe
bracings are pre-stressed to 50% of the design axial loads at installation.
 Figure 15: Lateral Bracing

C. Measured Wall Movement

Between 92nd street and 94th street, the excavation reached the subgrade level and
concrete mud mat was cast. Between 94th to 95thstreet, the excavation reached
the 3rd level of bracing. The deflections of the walls were monitored by
inclinometers installed in the slurry walls. Figure 16 compares the measured wall
deflection from a wall inclinometer located south of 94th street at completion of
excavation with the predicted wall deflection from the soil-structure interaction
finite element staged analysis. The two deflection curves have similar shape, but the
maximum deflection predicted from the analyses is 2.4 inches and the measured
maximum wall deflection is 1.5 inches. In the analyses, moderately conservative soil
parameters are used, and conservative building surcharge and sidewalk live loads
are used, which may contribute to the higher predicted wall deflection.
Elevation (ft)

Predicted
Design Wall
Deflection

Lateral Wall Deflection (Inches)

Figure 16: Design and Measured Wall Deflection (Excavation to Subgrade Level) –
South of 94th Street.
V CONCLUSIONS

The 2nd Avenue Subway project is the first major expansion of New York Subway
System in more than 50 years. The design and construction of the TBM Launch Box
face many challenges, including maintaining the vehicle and pedestrian traffic,
relocating complex network of utilities, excavating a 60 foot deep cut and cover
support excavation next to buildings in an urban environment. The Engineers,
Contractors and the Clients have collectively planned and considered all possible
means to apply the least impact on the neighborhood.

At the Launch Box, the top of rock slopes from 10 feet below ground surface at 92nd
street to more than 200 feet deep at 95th street, and the stratigraphy is very
complex with interlaying of glacial deposits. Temporary secant pile walls and
permanent slurry walls are designed to support the 65 foot deep excavation, which
are constructed in stages to allow for maintaining the traffic and utilities relocations.
The walls are supported by temporary steel bracings, forming a very stiff support of
excavation system, and the southern half of the 96th street station box was
constructed by bottom up method.

Performing all the work mentioned above while at the same time maintaining the
area residents and businesses in full operation including not interrupting any of the
utility supporting the area or the main lines of utility corridors passing though this
densely urban site has proven to be a task of large scale. This took great efforts and
planning of all three teams from the Owner the NY City MTA, to the design team of
DMJM Harris / Arup and the contractor Skanska-Schiavone-Shea to bring this project
to its current success.