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Strange but true: Archbishop to bless 100-ton subway drill
Photo credit: Urbanite
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, below, will bless the massive drill digging the No. 7 extension Friday. (Photo courtesy MTA; Dolan photo, Archdiocese of New York)
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan hasn’t wasted time getting his hands dirty.
In his first two weeks on the job, the city's Roman Catholic leader has toured the World Trade Center site. He threw out a pitch for the Mets and noshed on city hot dogs. Now, he’s getting close to a 100-ton boring machine.
Dolan will bless the drill used to dig the $2.1 billion extension of the No. 7 line Friday, MTA officials announced. Sandhogs now cutting the 7,100-foot twin tunnels flowing west from Times Square requested Dolan’s grace.
Priests have blessed the subway drills over the years, but not someone of Dolan’s stature, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said.“Building tunnels through bedrock deep under Manhattan is a dangerous enterprise,” Donovan said.
Dolan will not venture into the tunnel but give his blessing from the street at West 25th Street and 11th Avenue.
The MTA lowered the head of the boring machine into the earth in February. Its 44 cutters are mounted on a massive disk measuring 22-feet in circumference.
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