After a several month hiatus I ventured back out onto Second Avenue this week to pick up where I left off and continue illustrating the progress on the new T-Line, better known as the Second Avenue Subway. Upon picking up my sketchbook I found that I had three drawings that I never posted from as far back as April. The first one, above, is of three Skanska workers, and what I think was a foreman behind them, opening a ditch in the west intersection of 94th Street and 2nd Ave. Work at this point was on the east side of the avenue, and was much better maintained then the original round of work on the west side of Second. One of the foremen even made reference to “learning” from the first strip they opened down the west side of the roadway. In the background on top from the left is the fence protecting the work from the drivers barreling down Second Avenue. A truck is loading material over the barricade.

I can only imagine the nightmare of dealing with all of the utilities under the roadway and constantly having to gain access to one connection or another. This ditch had just been sealed and paved a few weeks earlier (Second Avenue Lane Change) and was now being opened for some new work. Several foremen, including the one behind them, kept watch as they opened the road in a relatively busy intersection. The three guys I drew that morning were a little bothered by my presence at first, but as I have found to be the case, warmed up to idea that I was drawing them, though each wanted me to draw the other two. The guy in the center, a tough but quiet Irishman, muttered a few comments to me as I was working. About a month later he passed me as I was heading down Second Avenue and did a double take, not remembering why he knew my face.