The city’s Economic Development Corporation has halted drilling work and will conduct an investigation into how a subcontractor ended up punching a hole through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel on Wednesday, flooding the tube, halting traffic and causing major traffic gridlock across the city.
“EDC is undertaking a thorough review of yesterday’s incident, and has immediately suspended all drilling activity pending the results of that review,” Adrien Lesser, a spokesperson for the corporation, said in a statement.
The accident occurred during exploratory drilling of the riverbed in preparation for the expansion of the East River Greenway. A crew from Warren George Inc. — a Jersey City-based drilling firm — bore a hole through the lining of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, letting water in and forcing cars out.
The crew was drilling from a barge in the river around noon on Wednesday — making a geological survey of the riverbed in the service of EDC’s plans — when it struck the tunnel 100 ft. below. The drill bit breached the tunnel’s cast iron lining, said officials from the MTA — which operates the tunnel — and salt water from the East River leaked onto the roadway through the tunnel’s exhaust vents.
The leak kept both tubes of the tunnel closed for three hours and the southern tube shut into the evening rush. Traffic was snarled across the area for hours.
It remained unclear who at EDC — a public-benefit corporation that facilitates public-private partnerships on City Hall’s behalf — would be performing the review of Wednesday’s drilling mishap.
Asked Thursday whether EDC or contractor Warren George would foot the bill for necessary tunnel repairs, corporation spokeswoman Lesser did not respond.
Meanwhile, traffic at the tunnel had returned to normal Thursday.
An MTA official with knowledge of the clean-up efforts told The News that crews had immediately set to work cleaning the tunnel in an effort to prevent corrosion from the salt water.
Salt water incursions during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on multiple tunnels in the region, including Amtrak’s East River tunnel, the North River tunnel leading into Penn Station, and the Canarsie Tunnel carrying the L train between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The same official said much less water had entered the Queens-Midtown tunnel during Wednesday’s incursion.
The officials said the MTA would continue to monitor the tunnel for any signs of salt-water damage, and expressed confidence that any potential issues from the salt water leak had been adequately addressed.
The drilling firm, Warren George, has been accused of damaging municipal property before.
In January 2017, then-Mayor de Blasio’s administration filed a claim against the firm for “causing damage to a 12” diameter water main” owned by the city on Roosevelt Island near the Queensborough Bridge.
The de Blasio administration asked for at least $52,097 in damages from Warren George — the cost of repairing the water main — as well as applicable interest and other fees.
The court docket doesn’t make clear how the 2017 case was resolved, though a city law department official said late Wednesday there was no record of damages being paid out.
A person who picked up the phone at Warren George’s Jersey City office declined to comment late Wednesday on that case. The person also told The News that they were “not at liberty” to discuss the drilling incident at the tunnel.
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