In September 2009, the MTA awarded Granite-Traylor-Frontiere Joint Venture a $659.2 million contract to employ two 500-ton slurry tunnel boring machines to create the tunnels connecting the LIRR Main Line and the Port Washington Branch to the 63rd Street Tunnel under 41st Avenue. The four tunnels, with precast concrete liners, total in length. The contract included a $58 million option to dig three tunnel pits and three emergency shafts, as well as complete an open cut. The two custom-built slurry TBMs, which could dig through several types of earth, were the first such machines to be used in the New York City area.