In 1968, 50 years ago, the governor of New York State Nelson Rockefeller received a proposal

he'd commissioned. It addressed the mass transit needs of the New York City area. One centerpiece

of the plan was a new subway line that would run from Lower Manhattan up the east side and into

the Bronx. It was called the Second Avenue Subway. Four years later, Rockefeller and New York City

Mayor John Lindsay held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Second Avenue Subway, but not long afterward,

the project was shelved because of a fiscal crisis. Years later, a new governor, Mario Cuomo,

tried to restart it, but once again, the budget would not allow and back it went on the shelf.

By now, the Second Avenue Subway had become a punchline. A New Yorker would promise to pay back

alone once the Second Avenue Subway was built. It came to be known as the most famous thing that's

never been built in New York City. But then, a long came a man named Michael. Here, I'm going to

let him say it. Michael O'Rodney-Chiano, if you look to see how people on Second Avenue would recognize

me as Dr. H. No one is really willing to pronounce my last name. Okay, let's go with Dr. H. He is a

long-time transportation scholar and executive. In 2008, he became president of capital construction

for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. And one of the first things he did was restart

the Second Avenue Subway. By now, it was 40 years since Governor Rockefeller's original proposal.

Dr. H. updated the budgets and estimates and finally got construction started. In 2010,

a massive tunnel-boring machine began its work underneath the Second Street.

So, they're about to start and they probed ahead into the rock. And then suddenly,

the realization is that the quality of the rock was poor. In effect, there was water going through

there. So, the decision was made that we have to freeze about close to two blocks. It took us four

months to actually freeze the ground. And it's costly. On Second Avenue, we spent $10 million to do it.

$10 million and four months just to freeze the ground just to start building the tunnel.

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