Construction of the tunnel began on October 12, 1914, using a
tunneling shield in conjunction with compressed air. The tunnel was designed by civil engineer
Clifford Milburn Holland, who would later serve as the first chief engineer of the
Holland Tunnel. The north tube of the tunnel was holed through on June 2, 1917, and the south tube was holed through on June 20, 1917. It opened to revenue service on August 1, 1920, the same day as the
60th Street Tunnel, on a holiday schedule; regular service began the next day. The two new tunnels allowed passengers to make an trip from Coney Island, through Manhattan on the
BMT Broadway Line, to Queens for a five-cent fare. The original construction cost was $9,867,906.52, almost twice that of the 60th Street Tunnel. On December 27, 1920, more than ten thousand passengers were forced to evacuate the tunnel. Power to the
third rail was shut off after a shoe beam on a train approaching
Whitehall Street fell and caused a short circuit, stranding ten subway trains inside the tunnel. In late 1960, the
New York City Transit Authority voted to allot $300,000 for upgrades to the Montague Street Tunnel's ventilation shafts. On October 29, 2012, the tunnel suffered severe flooding from
Hurricane Sandy and as a result, was closed to train service while repairs were being made. Service in the tunnel was restored using temporary equipment on December 21. However, the
MTA later announced that a complete reconstruction of the tunnel systems was needed, so the tunnel was closed for a second time around-the-clock on August 2, 2013. Originally slated to open by October 15, 2014, it reopened a month early on September 15, 2014. ==Constraints==