The MTA board on Monday approved a $1.9 billion contract for a new phase of the Second Avenue subway.

The contract was awarded to Connect Plus Partners to bore a new tunnel leading up to East 125th Street and to construct the space for the 116th Street station.

“This is long overdue,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, who attended a special meeting of the MTA Board in Harlem, said. “I think this for the people of East Harlem, the time of promises is over."

The approval will start the building of a tunnel boring machine that will reduce the amount of labor by 40%, resulting in $100 million in savings when it’s dropped into the ground in 2027.

It will bore 8,400 feet of tunnel from 120th Street to 125th Street and Park Avenue with trailing tracks to Malcolm X Boulevard at a rate of about 35-to-40 feet

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