Something was posted about this on SSP.
The concrete pour for the retaining walls at Tonnelle Ave bridge’s phase 2 is complete. The existing rebar on each end is for when they begin to lay down the bridge deck. They’re now working on the middle support columns, and soon we’ll have the bridge beams laid down once the support columns and structure are completed.
They’re also building a large retaining wall and doing more excavation that will eventually permit the TBMs to be launched for the Palisades tunnel portion.
The Hudson Yards casing is getting quite deep now. It’s getting harder to see the excavators in the pit closest to the High Line.
At the Portal Bridge, the southernmost arch has had its temporary supports removed completely, and the middle arch has them disconnected but are still attached.
Another big thing is that the high-voltage cables are being strung on the tall over-water towers and eventually going to be connected to the northern side’s catenary poles.
Insulators on the catenary poles are being installed, and those attachments on the pole arms and insulators are to permit the wires to be laid.
Several wires on the side closest to the camera have made it across and are linked to spools on trailers.
I was in NYC and, of course, inspected the Gateway-related work from the High Line.
Not sure if this is Gateway-related, but it was across the street.
I also saw the Portal Bridge on the way home. These aren’t the best pics, and the train windows were dirty. I was still happy to see it and view the progress firsthand.
Across the street is the beginning of work on the Manhattan tunnel portion of Gateway. Details can be found on the Gateway web site
Isn’t the trench running under the highline the beginning of the manhattan tunnel portion?
The trench is concrete casing #3. The Manhattan tunnel begins at the end of the trench.
No, the end of the trench is the beginning of the Manhattan Tunnel, right under the north side of West 30th Street.
The trench isn’t the actual Hudson Tunnels portion of the project. They’re a continuation of the cut and cover portion that was started during the construction of the first half of the Hudson Yards development. There will be a ventilation shaft built that will also permit the removal (or insertion) of the TBMs for the actual under-river component of the tunnels.
Right. The trench is for the placement of concrete casing number 3.
Here’s some recent video footage of the bridge’s progress. Per this video, some new catenary poles by Secaucus Junction are already hooked up and the catenary attached. Several old pole bases are visible and the older poles are removed.
However, as of recently, all the temporary support structures on the arches have been removed. Several insulators on the over-water high voltage lines are also installed and the temporary pulleys on some catenary poles are removed. There’s good progress on the wiring installation at this point.
The next phase of Tonnelle Avenue is to start the decking as the middle support column is cast and so are the bridge abutments.
Catenary Poles are going up in the arches. Both the outer arches are getting poles which means the concrete’s set. Looks like the arches get special black painted poles too. I noticed in recent videos that there were black catenary pole parts and they were black. It’d be cool if the entire bridge got black poles like the renderings though but that unfortunately didn’t happen.
The beams for the deck on the Tonnelle Ave middle portion of the bridge are laid. They’re going to start preparing for decking quite soon.
NJ Transit just published some official photos of work on the Portal Bridge. They are a bit outdated because catenary poles are now being installed on the middle segment now and more high voltage cables strung. Soon, all the poles will be installed.
Just as these great updates come along, the Hudson Yards and Tonnelle Ave live cams go down. Just prior to the cams going down, prep work for laying the bridge deck was underway with rebar and the metal sheeting underneath in place.
The Hudson Yards Casing has reached 50% completion. Still plenty of work to do, but they expect to finish by 2026. Almost all the dirt has been excavated and now they’re breaking bedrock and also starting work on the ventilation shaft which will also facilitate TBM access.
The 2nd Phase of Tonnelle Avenue’s bridge is nearing completion. The road surface has been poured and is now drying. The next thing is to wait for it to cure and then road lines can be applied and traffic will soon be shifted once this is finished, allowing for work to commence on the final segment of the bridge.
I also found documents that show the design and information for noise barriers likely to suppress construction work for the actual Hudson tunnel portion.
It’s a race to the finish with Portal Bridge as well. All catenary poles are in place and more wiring work is underway including the installation of insulators on the over-water poles.
Additional signalling infrastructure was put in as well and wiring and conduits for those are in the process of being installed.
In addition to wiring progress, evacuation staircases are being installed and all the Southern side temporary walkways and scaffolds are removed.
At the Hudson Yards site, the pit is extremely deep now and work is progressing at a steady pace.
You do a lot of work for the forum and are an unsung hero.
Agreed. Can’t wait to see the pictures you’ll get ALC11 when the tunnel boring starts! LOL.
I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for that one. I check those cams regularly to see if anything exciting happens. If I see anything, you’ll know quite quickly.
The other notable thing is that they’re building a large retaining wall that will hold back the terrain to support the eventual tunnel construction. This along with the shaft in Hudson County, and unexpected rock formation removal are the three major components that have to be addressed before work on the actual portals (and the arrival of the TBMs can commence. By then, the Tonnelle Avenue bridge will be largely complete as well.
Both the wall and rock removal are visible at the Tonnelle Avenue site cam.
As for the Hudson Tunnel, they revealed that they will be employing a “digger shield” which is not like a conventional TBM since it is more effective in the soft riverbed.