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Leave them there? Forever?

That depends on whom you ask. A source close to the project told the National Post that, “the two TBM’s are going to be left underground at Yonge St. because Metrolinx and TTC can’t come to terms on the interface of the two systems,” meaning the Crosstown LRT and the Yonge subway line. Brad Ross, a TTC spokesman, insisted that “we are working with Metrolinx on how those two stations interface.” Metrolinx, meanwhile, says its change of plan revolves around who removes the machines, not if. “It’s more of a scheduling issue, in order for them to complete the job on time,” said Mr. Robinson. Instead, Metrolinx will ask whoever builds the stations for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT to remove the machines.

So assuming they are removed, shouldn’t they be worth something?

Used tunnel-boring machines, which weigh about the equivalent of 360 automobiles, don’t fetch much on the secondary market. In 1995 when Mike Harris’s new Tory government killed the Eglinton subway, the TTC kept two tunnel-boring machines, for which it had paid $18-million, and used them in 1997 to dig the Sheppard subway line. After completing the Sheppard dig, in 2001 TTC sold the machines to Russia for $2.5-million each, where workers used them to extend Moscow’s subway.

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How does one go about selling giant used tunneling equipment?

Online, naturally. In December, the TTC bought a banner ad on the Tunnels & Tunneling International website, to list for sale four tunnel-boring machines it used to dig the 13.5-kilometre twin tunnels for the Spadina subway extension to York Region. The TTC had bought the machines in 2009 from Lovat for $58-million. Today the TTC has stored the machines at the Keele Valley landfill site. The machines are nearly good as new, the TTC says. “The TBMs are generally considered to have a useful life of tunneling of approximately 20 kilometres,” reads a TTC tender document. “At the completion of this project, they would have been used between 2.5 and 3.2 kilometres, or approximately 10-15% of their useful life. Accordingly, the TBMs will be capable of significant additional tunneling on other projects.” For those in the market, they come with ripper teeth, scraper teeth and a centre nose cutter.