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Article: 18 Feet Done, Many More to Go; Building a Metrorail Tunnel at Tysons Corner Takes Brute Force Applied With a Deft Touch
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 18, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Washington Post. This material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Cars crawl down Route 123 in the afternoon rush. Forty feet below
them, giant machines and men wearing yellow hard hats begin their
advance under Tysons Corner to bring Northern Virginia commuters
their holy grail: a new subway.
At $85 million, the half-mile tunnel is the costliest and most
complex engineering feat of the 23-mile Metro extension to Dulles
International Airport. It will be built while 3,500 cars and trucks
cross its path each hour, while the Courtyard Marriott serves
breakfast and guests swim in its pool, while hands are shaken over
aerospace deals at BAE Systems. It will carry on under two miles of
tangled utility lines that convey to Tysons everything from
electricity to ...