Comments on: Three years later, a prolonged SAS schedule

By: Ben G

Ben G — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:57:05 +0000

MTA Leadership is to blame. The buck has to stop with them. This thing is being mismanaged. The delay in blasting is a perfect example. Arguing with landlords about who’s-to-pay to shore up the busted buildings? After months of bickering, the MTA figures out, it’s cheaper, faster, better to stop fighting, fix the buildings and get on with building the subway. Bickering with landlords won’t in a million years get the subway built. The MTA does not have the right stuff, can-do attitude that gets things done. Anybody who’s worked in engineering knows the Dilbert mentality, and that’s what’s going on here.

Start with the design assumptions and go into any aspect of this project, and it’s not about “can-do”…the people responsible for every aspect of this project do not have the attitude that this must get done on time and on budget.

New management is required at this point. The contractors, workers, suppliers are the same more or less everywhere. Hire the best person in the world who knows how to get a project like this done, pay him the money he’s worth (and will save the project in the end) and let him bring in a new team of managers who will kick butt.

Changing this-or-that here-or-there won’t do a damn thing to change the situation — if current management remains. Better management is the only hope.

By: Nathanael

Nathanael — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:45:20 +0000

The “Buy America” laws are a problem there.

A bigger problem, however, is *lack of contractor coordination*. One reason why “design-build” has become popular is that it puts one small group of people in charge of everything.

In the 19th century, the IRT was given carte blanche by the city, pretty much; if they hit an electric line, they didn’t wait for Con Ed, they moved it themselves, and if Con Ed complained, the city weighed in for the IRT.

Sadly, the same is not happening now. The city *should have* simply condemned the problem buildings and arrested the owner long before the digging started, but nooooo. Contractors shouldn’t be waiting around for other people; if Con Ed doesn’t show up when they’re supposed to, they should be fined. Et cetera.

Failure to coordinate seems to be a major source of delay, and with this many companies and people involved, coordination is essential.

By: Nathanael

Nathanael — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:41:18 +0000

Sure, surface solutions would work!….

…if you can convince the City and the residents of Second Avenue to lose *four lanes* of traffic, and convince crosstown drivers to have their streets cut off on either side of Second Avenue….

What, the Subway looks easier to build now? What a surprise.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:53:00 +0000

Then hire contractors from other countries. Offer the contractors who build subways for Tokyo Metro 50% more money than what they’d get in Japan; construction costs would still be about two fifths what they’re budgeting for SAS and the 7 extension.

By: General

General — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:43:03 +0000

Its not just red tape. Its unionized labor, and its the fact that there simply isn’t enough contractors with experience in building tunnel infrastructure like this anymore in the city. Experience is what counts in construction, and competition between different contractors with experience is used to drive down costs. When you have a project like this which cost billions but barely anyone is willing to bid on, you have a mess in your hands, and that’s the reason for the delays.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:01:46 +0000

Second Avenue is closer to East Midtown. In a city where people are incapable of moving a subway line from one street to another, this counts for a lot.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:00:45 +0000

They had the same issues back then as they do now. They had to relocate utilities, lay down tracks, relocate utilities back, cover back the street before store owners yelled at them too much for disrupting business.

The problem isn’t urban development. It’s that the people running the city need to be put on Riker’s Island, on a permanent basis.

By: paulb

paulb — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:19:34 +0000

Kind of late for this comment, and not precisely on topic, but it’s something I’ve been curious about so… Why is the new subway on Second Avenue, in the first place? Apart from that it was meant to replace the long gone Second Avenue El? Wouldn’t First Avenue have been a better route? Second Avenue is already relatively close to the existing East Side line. A First Avenue line would seem to give more central service to the upper East Side, be better for alphabet city, and also be right there for the UN, hospital row and Stuy Town/PCV. Surely someone involved with the planning for this must have brought this up, at some time.

By: Scott E

Scott E — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:17:40 +0000

I understand, and stand corrected for suggesting that you are blaming anyone. But these guys in the hardhats and orange vests usually do get blamed. In fact, they are not much unlike you or me waiting 3 hours and 58 minutes hoping the cable guy will show up during the promised “service window”.
But it’s hard to force these outside entities to play by your schedule. ConEd, Verizon, etc. have little interest in dedicating resources to this project, which, if ever completed, probably won’t generate revenue for their companies for about a decade.

By: Cen-Sin

Cen-Sin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:17:35 +0000

I find that the pace of building in China is staggeringly quick by our standards. Maybe we need to get rid of some red tape to make progress.