Transcript: Mayor Adams Updates New Yorkers on Ongoing Closure of the Queens Midtown Tunnel

September 4, 2024

Watch the video here at https://www.youtube.com/live/S7L77G3jZXw?si=2O3fEsbV97yxSaAz

Mayor Adams: Good afternoon, I am Mayor Adams and I'm joined with our senior team here and a representative from EDC to really just give you an overview of what we're dealing with here. There's a small leak in the tunnel, and we're going to see about doing the necessary repairs. But I want to take you from how it started, what our plan here to continue traffic moving forward, and how we're going to get this situation under control. So we're going to turn it over to EDC to lay out exactly how this whole accident took place.

Joshua Kraus, Executive Vice President and Chief Infrastructure Officer, New York City Economic Development Corporation: Thank you, sir. Josh Kraus with New York City EDC. Everything I'm about to share is preliminary and subject to further confirmation as more information comes in. 

To the best of our knowledge at this time, at roughly 12.30 p.m. this afternoon, a drilling contractor who was performing investigative work related to the design of the upcoming U.N. Esplanade project, this is something that will ultimately continue, the East River waterfront, was doing work in the East River and accidentally perforated a small amount in the outside edge of the Queens Midtown Tunnel. 
I'll defer to my colleagues with the TBTA to talk a little bit more about the extent of the damage. But we are continuing to investigate exactly how and why this occurred, and are working very closely in tight collaboration with our colleagues at the TBTA, at OEM, at NYPD, and others, to address this matter as quickly as possible and to get New Yorkers back moving on track through the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

Commissioner Zach Iscol, New York City Emergency Management: Zach Iscol, I'm the commissioner for New York City Emergency Management. First off, I just want to start by thanking the mayor and the team that's out here for the work that they're doing. We've had the NYPD out here rerouting traffic. Earlier today, we were able to open up the North Tunnel to two lanes in either direction in order to get some flow going both to Queens and into Manhattan. 

In addition to that, we're really encouraging New Yorkers to take public transportation. We're rerouting buses over the 59th Street Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge, and then encouraging people to take the subway. Especially if you have plans to go out to the U.S. Open tonight, think about taking the subway. There are going to be traffic delays. 

We will continue providing updates throughout the night and evening as more information becomes available as we get further along in the process of fixing the issues here. But we encourage every New Yorker to sign up for NotifyNYC, the primary mechanism by which we'll be pushing information out to the public, also through social media, through the press, and a bunch of other outlets. If there's any questions, I'm happy to take them, but I'm going to turn it over to Cathy Sheridan. Cathy and her team have been doing great work out here fixing this issue, and she'll talk a little bit about the work that they're doing. She's the president of Bridges and Tunnels. Cathy?

Catherine Sheridan, President, MTA Bridges and Tunnels: Thank you. So I'm Cathy Sheridan, president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels. As my colleagues from the city have mentioned, we discovered this leak at about 12:30 this afternoon. Out of abundance of caution, we closed both tubes in the tunnel until we could figure out what was exactly the cause of this leak. 

Working with our partners at EDC, we determined it was the drilling contractor who drilled about a two-and-a-half-inch hole through the cast iron liner, which is above the exhaust duct. And we have a contractor on site. We called in an emergency contractor. They are doing an interim repair. We don't know when we will be open. We hope it will be within hours and not days. And then we will come back later and do a more permanent repair. Thank you.

State Assemblymember Alex Bores: Assemblymember Alex Bores from the 73rd District. I want to commend the mayor and his team, and of course MTA Bridges and Tunnels, for hopping on this so quickly and opening it up. 

The videos that people have seen on social media are of course terrifying, but the situation is safe. We have traffic in both directions in the bridges right now. There will be ongoing traffic delays from that. We encourage New Yorkers, of course, to take mass transit and to find alternative ways of moving forward. But the situation with the tunnel is safe and being repaired, and I commend the mayor's team for doing that and NYPD for the rerouting of traffic that they are doing here. And thank you all for your concern.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you, assemblyman. We're open to a few questions that we can answer at this time if there are any.

Question: Mayor, this isn't stubbing your toe in the bit while it's drilling a hole in the roof of the tunnel. It's drilling a hole in the roof of the tunnel. This is a substantial issue. How is it that the contractor, whether it's a consultant or not, doesn't double and triple check where he or she is drilling before the bit goes into the ground?

Kraus: Certainly agree with you. We are reviewing this matter intensively. Right now, our first focus is on repair and restoration. We are investigating every aspect, every element of how we got here in this moment, and we'll have more information as we have more information that we're confident in.

Question: I think a lot of people, Josh, would love to hear you say, we're going to make sure this never happens again.

Kraus: That is certainly the plan. Yes, sir.

Sheridan: I just wanted to let everyone know the plug is actually in place, and the leak has subsided, so it will not be an extended plug.

Question: How is it that two and a half inch walls, they wouldn't get parted? Same part, it's not thick as the wall.

Sheridan: Sure, there are many redundancies in the tunnel, but when someone drills through all of those layers, it's going to cause a leak.

Question: So two and a half inches is the diameter of the hole?

Sheridan: No, two and a half inches is the diameter of the hole.

Question: So how deep in?

Sheridan: As I understand it, they drilled 100 feet from the surface of the water, about 50 feet through water, and then another 50 feet through soil, then to the top.

Question: And do you know how deep into the tunnel they are going to put the plug?

Sheridan: I don't.

Question: And other than a plug, Cathy, can you get into what goes into the repairs or something like this?

Sheridan: The plug is temporary, obviously, and we will put safeguards around the plug to collect any residual water. It will likely be some sort of permanent either concrete or steel repair.

Question: Any idea how much water went into the tunnel?

Sheridan: Don’t know. 

Question: [Inaudible] amending the construction? 

Sheridan: The fix? Who's doing the fix?

Question: The EDC controller.

Sheridan: OK, I'll defer to the EDC.

Kraus: I believe the name I'm looking at, my colleague is Warren George. They are the drilling company. They were doing work under a contract with AECOM, who was the design consultant that we had brought on to help us do the investigative work.

Question: Have they had a response to the drill? What have they said about it?

Kraus: Again, we're still in investigation and conversation. What I can say is that at this time, everybody is working together, ready to assist, ready to help, ready to make sure that we are back in progress as soon as possible.

Question: Can you repeat exactly what was the work that they were doing before the whole thing happened?

Kraus: They were doing investigative drilling to determine geotechnical conditions in the river. This is an important part of the design process. What was happening here is we were performing the earliest parts of a design process that was going to, or will still, inform the design for a new segment of the East River Waterfront Esplanade and in the course of that investigative work, that's where the drilling occurred and that's where this incident occurred.

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