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Neighborhood Pubs in Path of Penn Station Expansion Will Be Razed by Port Authority

By DNAinfo Staff on June 16, 2010 8:42pm  | Updated on June 17, 2010 8:45am

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN WEST — Mike Higgings and Jim Hickey don't know when their neighborhood watering holes will be forced to close.

They just know it's coming.

Higgings and Hickey, who run the beloved Blarney Rock Pub and Hickey's Bar, which have stood side-by-side on 33rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues since the 1960s, received letters from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey earlier this month informing them that their buildings have been marked for demolition.

The bars stand in the path of one of the largest transportation projects in the nation: The $8.7 billion ARC (Access to the Region's Core) project that will bore two giant new tunnels under the Hudson River and expand Penn Station, doubling commuter capacity between New Jersey and Midtown.