While we all gathered to celebrate Mayor Bloomberg’s 7 line extension a few weeks ago, the rest of New York City is going to have to wait even longer as this project too has been delayed a few months. According to MTA documents to be presented to board members on Monday, due to issues with the escalators and elevators at 34th St. and the transmission backbone system, the opening of the station at Hudson Yards will be delayed until at least late summer/early fall of 2014 and possibly into the fourth quarter of 2014.
The three main concerns seem to focus around equipment. The hand rail motor for the high rise escalators at 34th Street failed the Factory Acceptance Test; the transmission backbone system which operates all major systems including HVAC, fire alarms and the elevators and escalators were delayed; and the inclined elevators at 34th St. have twice failed Factory Acceptance Tests. The MTA notes as well that “installation logistics and access…may become an issue.”
According to the documents, the MTA is working with contractors to mitigate the delay, but it’s not likely that the agency will meet the previously promised June 2014 date. The delay should not impact the cost, but it is yet another sign of problems managing major construction projects. By the time it opens, the 7 line extension will be nearly two years late past original estimates and one year off of its revised timeline that had service commencing in December.
11 comments
I am very surprised by this. But then again it always surprises me when I cool water down below 32 degrees Farenheit and it freezes.
Not surprising actually. Did you see the speech Bloomberg and his staff made? An old lady said (forgot her name) “When it opens in early fall…”. I guess they were aware of another delay.
And how many days after it opens do we expect the yellow caution tape to be surrounding the broken down escalators and inclined elevators? 3? 13?
*fart noise*
So much for it being open in time for Comic Con. Ah well, next year!
At least it’s near finished and didn’t take 15+ years to build like ESA is going to. Is it just easier digging under Hell’s Kitchen than under the heart of midtown, or is something else going on?
And now I wonder about the OTHER opening scheduled for this June, the Fulton Center. Is THAT project at least going to open on time?
LMAO!
It’s been possible to follow Fulton Center progress because it’s in and around working subway stations. There isn’t much left to do; most of the announced parts of the project have clearly been built. So it would be hard to delay it much more.
The Second Avenue subway will be a year later than they’ve been saying.
It will be 2017, at the earliest.
As soon as the first homeless person urinates on it–that’s how long. Honestly, they can’t even figure out how to install an escalator? This is the same agency that couldn’t figure out how wide the platform needed to be at the new South Ferry Station which caused its opening to be delayed–and we all kknow how that station ended up. The incompetence is unbelievable and we just wait and wait while the costs go up and up.
The contractor supplied substandard escalators.
This is a recurring problem in New York City: shoddy contractors who attempt to cheat the taxpayers.
At least on the #7 line, they *caught* the contractor trying to cheat the taxpayers, and are going to make the contractor pay.
The contractor for South Ferry station, by contrast, got away with cheating the taxpayers by using substandard materials.