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Read the press release here.

MTA Halts Second Avenue Subway Blasting Until Dec. 5

By Amy Zimmer | November 23, 2011 10:27am
Residents cover their faces as they cross the street at Second Avenue and East 70th Street on Thursday. The dust and odor fills the air when the MTA blasts underground for the subway.
Residents cover their faces as they cross the street at Second Avenue and East 70th Street on Thursday. The dust and odor fills the air when the MTA blasts underground for the subway.
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DNAinfo/Amy Zimmer

MANHATTAN — The MTA is putting a brief hold on blasting for the Second Avenue Subway in response to community complaints about dust and odors from the project at East 72nd Street, transit officials said.

The MTA will halt blasting until Dec. 5 to figure out how to improve the area’s muck houses, which are designed to minimize dust from the dirt workers have dug up for the subway. Residents have raised concerns about the air quality in the area, saying they use their shirts and scarves to cover their faces as they walk through the area.

"MTA Capital Construction is undertaking a series of actions to help mitigate the impact of blasting on the community, including the modification of muck house enclosures and exhaust systems," an MTA spokesman said. "As a result, blasting has been temporarily suspended around 72nd Street until Dec. 5."

The smoke and noxious odors have gotten worse since the MTA stopped blasting past 7 p.m. in August because of dinnertime noise complaints. That forced workers to do several blasts simultaneously to get the work done within the allotted time, which gave less "dilution time for the smoke/odor to dissipate," the subway's construction manager, Amitabha Mukherjee, said according to an email Community Board 8 recently sent to residents.

"There’s no way to cross the street without getting covered in muck," Valerie Mason, who lives on East 72nd Street, said at a Community Board 8 meeting in September. "There are elderly and children and they are in the middle of a construction site. It’s just not right."

The MTA’s announced its moratorium at a Community Board 8 subway task force meeting Tuesday night to a round of applause, according to the New York Post.

But William Goodrich, from MTA Capital Construction, said the halt resulted in layoffs for constructions workers on the $4.4 billion project. It wasn’t clear if they’d get their jobs back when the blasting restarts, according to the Post.

"I have a very difficult time with that, knowing what time of year it is," he said, according to the paper.

MTA officials said the project is still on track to open in December 2016.