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Blasting for the 72nd Street Station — part of the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway project — has been completed, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials announced yesterday.

Controlled drill and blast operations to build the future subway station began in January 2011. A total of 183,000 cubic yards of rock was excavated and removed to create an underground cavern out of the bedrock beneath Second Avenue, officials said in a prepared statement.

The contractor, SSK Constructors, will continue to waterproof and install the steel reinforced concrete lining of the underground station cavern and tunnels. The muck house at 72nd Street will be disassembled this spring and the muck house at 69th Street will be removed by fall, officials said.

The $4.45 billion project to extend the Q Line along Second Avenue is the largest expansion of the subway system in generations. The line will have new stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets, and is expected to open for service in December 2016.