MTA officials continue to promise a late December opening for Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway even in the face of mounting concerns that one station is not complete and systems tests are lagging. According to the latest MTA Board materials and a report yesterday by the agency’s independent engineering consultant, if MTA Capital Construction does not nearly double the pace of testing over the next six weeks, the project’s on-time opening could be in doubt.
“The test program is not meeting the completion rate required to finish the testing of all key systems needed for a for a start of revenue service in December,” Kent Haggas, an engineer who has been following the project for months, said. “We have about 300 [tests] left to go and about 12 weeks to make it. It’s our number one concern.”
For the MTA, these tests, and their slow pace, echoes back to the delays in opening the 7 line extension. MTA materials note that the tests involve fire safety and HVAC and vent systems as well as elevators and escalators up and down 2nd Ave. Additionally, certain escalators and elevators have yet to be installed at 72nd St., but the MTA says these elements of the project will not affect the revenue service date. Haggas, in his report however, noted that “the finish of elevators and escalators and their integration into the station fire alarm system by the end of December remains a concern.”
As this project nears its completion and contractors enter the finishing stages of work, it seems likely that work may bleed into the early part of 2017. So long as the agency doesn’t run into unforeseen problems at this point, even if it misses the revenue service date of December 31, an opening within the early part of the first quarter of next year seems likely. That said, the MTA is facing a lot of pressure externally and internally to deliver this project on time.
Lately, as the MTA has returned street and sidewalk space to the neighborhood around 96th St., many people have asked if they could open part of the project and skip 72nd St. if that station remains the sticking point to a December opening. As now, MTACC has to certify all of Phase 1 complete before handing over control and operations to New York City Transit. With the 7 line, that handoff occurred essentially just before the opening press conference, and it’s an all-or-nothing handoff. If a part of the project — one discrete station — remains incomplete, the entire project is incomplete.
So we’ll wait. The W train, as we learned last week, returns on November 7, the next new crew rotation before the Second Ave. Subway is supposed to open. Will this new subway line, nearly 90 years in the making following this year or early next? We still don’t know, and December 31 is now just 95 days away.
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