Those who enjoy watching things blowing up (and nobody getting hurt) and men playing with toys should get a kick out of this video provided on Tuesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
It shows sandhogs setting off one of the last blasts under Grand Central Terminal as part of the enormous East Side Access project that will allow Long Island Rail Road trains to access the terminal. The workers are building two “caverns 160 feet below street level that will house eight tracks for L.I.R.R. trains,†according to a news release from the transit authority.
For the past six years, 1,000 workers, working 24 hours a day, five days a week, have conducted more than 2,400 controlled blasts. Each blast requires the use of 200 to 500 pounds of an explosive powder called Emulex. And before each blast one worker must shout out a familiar warning: “Fire in the hole!â€
And all of this has happened while untold numbers of commuters and others have traipsed through Grand Central largely unaware of the fireworks occurring below.
