Mayor Eric Adams Updates New Yorkers on Ongoing Closure of The Queens Midtown Tunnel

uh uh good afternoon uh mayor Adams 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 as a a small uh leak uh in the tunnel and uh we're going to see about doing the necessary repairs but I want to take you from um how it how it started uh what our plan here uh to continue traffic moving forward and how we're going to get this situation under under control so we're going to turn it over to EDC to lay out exactly um how we how this uh hold actually took place thank you sir Josh house uh with the New York City EDC uh 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 uh drilling contractor who was performing investigative work related to the design of the upcoming un Esplanade uh project this is something that will ultimately continue the East River Waterfront uh was doing work in the East River um and accidentally uh perforated a small amount in the outside uh edge of the queen Midtown Tunnel I'll defer to my colleagues with the tbta to talk a little bit more about the extent of the damage um but we are continuing to investigate exactly how and why this occurred um and are working very closely uh in tight collaboration with our colleagues at the tbta at OEM at NYPD and others uh to address this matter as quickly as possible and to get New Yorkers back uh moving on track through the Queens m Town tunnel um Zach Isco I'm the commissioner for New York City Emergency Management first off just want to start by thanking the mayor and the team that's out here for the work that they're doing uh we've had the NYPD out here rerouting traffic earlier today we're able to open up uh the north tunnel to two lanes in either direction in order to get some flow going both two queens and into Manhattan uh in addition to that we're really encouraging York workers uh to take public transportation uh we're rerouting buses over the 59 Street bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge and then encouraging people to take the subway especially if you have plans to go out to the US Open tonight uh think about taking the subway there are going to be traffic delays we will continue providing updates throughout the night uh and evening as more information becomes available as we uh get further along in the process of fixing um the issues here but we encourage every New Yorker to sign up for notify NYC 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 um if there's any questions happy to take him but I'm going to turn it over to uh Kathy Sheridan Kathy and her team have been doing great work out here uh fixing this issue and she'll talk a little bit about the work that they're doing she's the president of uh Bridges and cels Kathy thank you so I'm Kathy Sheridan president of MTA Bridges and tunnels as my colleagues from the city have mentioned uh we discovered this leak uh at about 12:30 this afternoon uh and an abundance of caution we closed both tubes in the tunnel until we could figure out what was exactly the cause of this leak um working with our partners at EDC uh we determined it was the drilling contractor who uh drilled about a 2 and 1/2 in hole through the cast iron liner which is above the the exhaust duct um and we have a Contractor on site we called in an emergency contractor uh they are doing an interim repair um we don't know when we will be open uh we hope it will be within hours and not days um and then we will come back later and do a more permanent repair thank you assembly member Alex Boris from the 73rd District I want to commend the mayor and his team uh and of course M Bridgers and tunnels for hopping on this so quickly and opening it up um the videos that people have seen on social media are of course terrifying but the situation is safe um 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 uh and to find alternative ways of moving forward but the situation with the tunnel is safe and being repaired uh and I commend the mayor's team for doing that and NYPD for the rerouting of traffic that they're doing here um and thank you all for for your concern in coming thank you thank you s we're open to a few questions that we can answer at this time if there are any [Applause] something drilling a hole in the roof of the tunnel is a substantial issue how is it that the contractor whether it's or not doesn't double and triple check where he or she is drilling before the bit goes into the you see uh certainly uh agree with you um we are reviewing this matter intensively uh right now our first focus is on repair and restoration uh we are investigating every aspect every element of how we got here in this moment uh and we'll have more information as we have more information that we're confident in I think a lot of people Jos would love to hear you say we're going to make sure this never happens again uh that is certainly the plan yes sir I I just wanted to let everyone know the plug is actually in place and the leak has subsided so it will will not be an extended closing sure there there are many redundancies you know in the tunnel but when you know someone drills through all of those layers it's it's going to cause a leak No 2 and2 in is the diameter of the the hole so how deep as I understand it they drilled 100 ft from the surface of the water uh about 50 ft through water and then another 53 50 ft through soil then to the tunnel you know how deep into the tunnel they I I don't plug Kathy can you get into what goes into the repairs something like this so the plug is temporary obviously when and we will put you know safeguards around the plug to collect any residual water it it will likely be some sort of you know permanent either concrete or steel repair the tunel don't the the the fix who's doing the fix okay defer to DDC yeah um uh I believe the name I'm looking at my uh my colleague is Warren George uh they are the drilling company uh they were doing work under uh a contract with aeom who was the design consultant that we had uh brought on to help us do the investigative work response drill what did they said about uh again we're still in investigation and conversation uh what I can say is that at this time uh everybody is working together ready to assist ready to help uh ready to make sure that we are uh back in progress as soon as possible can you repeat exactly what was the work that they were doing before the yes uh they were doing in investigative uh 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 uh or will still uh inform the design for a new segment of the East River uh Waterfront Esplanade uh and in the course of that investigative work that's where the drilling occurred uh and that's where this incident occurred all right thanks guys thanks sure thanks oh