Second Avenue Subway Construction: MTA Shows Off January 2013 Progress (PHOTOS)

It's been some time since we last checked in on the rumblings under Manhattan's East Side.

Although construction of the Second Avenue Subway has had its fair share of hiccups (August's frightening explosion, unsettling noxious odors), new photos released by the MTA show the long-awaited subway line, well, starting to look like a subway line.

The photos were taken from January 23 to January 26.

Gothamist has the latest on the subway line:

At the 86th Street cavern, the job is 42 percent complete, with 88,438 bank cubic yards excavated to date...And things are even better further down at 72nd Street, where the contractor is almost entirely done (96.3 percent) with excavation. They've dug out 177,873 bank cubic yards of earth!.

For more details, head over to Gothamist.

See below for the impressive work.

All photos by Patrick Cashin/MTA. All captions from the MTA.