NYC's Underground Undertaking

On October 16th the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg announced the opening of the Manhattan section of a water tunnel project that began in 1950 but didn't get under way till 1970.  The $4.7 billion dollar project has already claimed the lives of 24 people during its construction so far.  Once the massive construction is finally complete, the tunnel will stretch more than 60 miles bringing water to Brooklyn and Queens from reservoirs located north of New York City.  The tunnel will both serve as a backup for the primary water tunnel used in the area and will give city workers and engineers an opportunity to inspect and repair the old tunnel for the first time in almost 100 years.  In order to finance this project, the city Water Board has initiated years of rate hikes, and bills are projected to continue increasing 7.5% a year for the next three years.  Definitely quite the underground undertaking here if you ask me.