When it comes to ongoing the Second Ave. Subway work, the MTA is facing a mini crisis. Because Albany funded the current capital plan only through the end of the year and has yet to address 2012-2014, there is a slight chance that the MTA will have to freeze some big-ticket items if the politicians do not come through. Recently, the MTA has taken to urging Upper East Siders to contact their representatives, and it has some civic activists a little skittish.

In the Daily News today, one-time mayoral candidate George Spitz uses the MTA’s politicking to issue a familiar call: light rail for Second Ave., he says. It’s an idea that just won’t die, but it’s time is rapidly expiring. While Spitz wants an avenue-long LRT line along the East Side, that’s not feasible right now. I’ll get to that shortly, but first, Spitz’s argument:

With the decades-in-the-making Second Avenue subway line still a distant dream, it is time to think of new ideas for East Side public transport. Specifically, it is time to examine less costly and otherwise more feasible alternatives, particularly light rail, for relief of serious congestion on Lexington Avenue, especially since the first 1.7 miles of the Second Avenue (from 96th St. to 63rd) line won’t be open until 2016, at a cost of several billions dollars.

The need for a new plan for East Side public transit relief became obvious on June 22, when MTA Senior Vice President for Capital Construction William Goodrich came to a meeting of Community Board 8 on the upper East Side and pleaded with board members to press local state senators and Assembly members for more money from Albany.”Without additional funding, we won’t really have the ability to procure the remaining three contracts,” Goodrich told those present….

That’s why light rail is a perfect solution. With estimated construction time of only two years and stops every two blocks – as opposed to every ten or even twenty – light rail provides faster and more convenient relief for congested Lexington Avenue subway ridership. New York’s first grooved-rail tracks were laid in 1852; however, trolleys were soon supplanted by subways. But maybe it’s time for that trend to finally reverse…

Of the $1.3 billion the George W. Bush administration granted for Phase 1 of the Second Avenue line, I estimate that less than half could be used for light rail instead. There would be no need for higher state taxes or increases in subway, bus and toll bridge fares. Moreover, the left-over money could be used to create much-needed transit improvements in the outer boroughs, which need the help no less than Manhattan.

Spitz’s take is filled with some strange claims. In a section I omitted, he bemoans the fact that there are “only” three stops — at 72nd, 86th and 96th Sts. — planned for Phase 1 and blames Lexington Ave. IRT congestion on the SAS stop spacing. That simply doesn’t make any sense because, due to the popularity and population of those neighborhoods, even just those three stops will alleviate much of the IRT congestion.

The second problem is one of politics. Spitz notes that in the early 1980s, President Reagan allowed New York to reallocate Westway funds to subway improvements, and he proposes doing the same thing here. This idea ignores the fact that Washington has not taken kindly to localities’ decisions to reappropriate earmarked federal funds. We need look no further than the Hudson River to see what happened when Gov. Chris Christie tried to claim even $271 million worth of ARC Tunnel money. Here, we’re talking about billions.

Third, Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway is too far along to torpedo. The tunnels from 63rd St. and 3rd Ave. to 96th St. and Second Ave. are completed, and while it will still take another five years to finish the tunnels and build out the stations, it would be foolhardy to leave these completed tunnels — and awarded contracts — to rot.

That said, Spitz’s proposal could work with a few amendments. The MTA should finish Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway, and it should take advantage of the completed sections of tunnel north of 96th St. to build out Phase 2 as well. The Q — or some other BMT Broadway train — would then run north from 57th and Broadway to 63rd and Lexington and then underneath Second Ave. After that, the city could consider building light rail down Second Ave. to Hanover Square for a fraction of the cost of subway construction. An LRT route would have to operate as part of the MTA with a similar fare structure and transfers to crosstown buses and connecting subway routes, and the city would have to appease businesses and drivers who make a stink over lane appropriate. With the right approach, it should work.

Ultimately, the time for a full-length light rail line along Second Ave. has passed. The SAS is too far along with too much invested into it for the MTA to pull out. Spitz might be right to worry about Goodrich’s statements, but with construction lobbyists, the MTA and various other interests pushing for capital funding, Albany will have no choice but to come through. Light rail will have to wait.

Construction progress for the IND Crosstown line (looking east toward the Court Street Station, now home of the Transit Museum) on Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY. October 20, 1930. (Photo courtesy of the Transit Museum)

In honor of its 35th Anniversary year, the Transit Museum — New York’s must underrated playground for subway enthusiasts — published a photoset to flickr today of scenes from the past three and a half decades. As a tantalizing glimpse at what lies in its archives, it fronted the set with the above shot from 1930 of the construction of the IND Crosstown line at Court and Schermerhorn Streets in Brooklyn. Looks like a mess, eh?

This historic shot got me thinking about the complaints surrounding construction along Second Ave. Once upon a time in New York City, subway construction was the norm. For 35 years in the early decades of the 20th Century, New Yorkers expected torn up streets cutting through neighborhoods in various states of development, and the resulting benefits included a vast new subway system. Yet, now, the last time cut and cover construction was employed in New York City, residents protested when parts of Central Park were dug up to make way for the 63rd St. tunnel.

Today, the Second Ave. Subway has turned a once-vibrant commercial and residential strip into a dust bowl of noise and construction fences. The MTA is trying to work with community groups to minimize the impact, but the authority has, to put it charitably, been less than successful in doing so. Now imagine if the scene from Court and Schermerhorn were transplanted to Second Ave. at 85th St. in 2011. That’s an unpleasant image, to say the least.

Many advocates for subway expansion have pointed to the costs of a deep-bore tunnel as an impediment to those projects, but the truth is more complex than that. Deep-bore tunneling isn’t significantly more expensive than cut-and-cover to justify what would arguably be a neighborhood-destroying project. It’s politically infeasible to propose cut-and-cover right now, and these scenes from the past remind us why.

The muck conveyance system at 72nd Street is designed to reduce dust in the air due to subway construction. (Photo courtesy of The Launch Box)

It’s getting dusty up in here, Second Ave. residents and business owners have said to the MTA. With non-stop subway construction moving ever southward along the busy commercial strip, those who have lived through four years of noise and still have a few more to go say the air is dustier than ever, and now East Side politicians want some answers from the MTA.

“The Second Avenue Subway will one day benefit all New Yorkers, but right now the construction of the new line is putting a heavy burden on merchants and residents near Second Avenue,” Representative Carolyn Maloney said over the weekend. “The MTA must redouble its efforts to minimize dust and foul odors emanating from the construction site – and take steps to assure the public that the air is safe to breathe. Chairman Walder takes quality-of-life concerns seriously and I know that those who live and work near Second Avenue would be grateful for his attention to these important concerns.”

The story broke late last week in a brief item in The Post. Locals were complaining that the air near key construction sites had become dangerously dusty. “I’ve been in some bad military situations, and it’s not as bad as that,” Ralph Leviton, an Upper East Sider, said.

The MTA admitted that project managers were testing the air and noted that mitigation efforts — including the construction of some dust-reducing conveyors were underway. Still, dust levels were above normal. “Over the past four weeks there have been instances where the reading has exceeded the established threshold for 15 minutes or less on a given day,” an authority spokesman said to DNA Info. “Going forward we are assigning additional supervision to ensure that the dust is thoroughly hosed down and we will continue to closely monitor the site.”

This weekend, area politicians asked the MTA to respond to these complaints and better test and clean up the air. In a letter to Jay Walder, Rep. Maloney pushed for more attention to the issue: “I urge you to conduct — or, if you are already conducting, redouble — air-quality testing in and around the construction zone along Second Avenue and East 69th and 70th Streets to make sure that the construction is not exposing area residents to environmental hazards. In addition, I hope you will explore the feasibility of periodically spraying the construction area to suppress the dust or taking other measures to minimize the impact of construction dust and odors on the neighborhood.”

Other local voices joined in with her calls. “The dust storms created by the subway construction make Second Avenue seem like the badlands of Texas,” Assembly Member Micah Kellner said. “This isn’t a matter to be taken lightly; asthma and allergies are at their peak during the summer months. This dust is only adding to those health concerns. We need to hold the MTA accountable so that East Siders have breathable air.”

It is apparently tough work building a subway through a densely-populated residential neighborhood, and the MTA is learning the hard way about the side effects of subway construction. When — or if — this project reaches Phase II or beyond, the authority should at least have a set of best practices off of which it can work to minimize neighborhood impact. After all, no one likes dust or debris, but everyone wants a new subway line.

The new Second Ave. Subway will come equipped with a bike lane, according to a report in the satirical final edition of The New York Times. The online parody, produced by a group of comedians, offers up a rather comical take on the state of transportation dialogue in New York City right now.

“Jerome Bosch” writes:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pro-bicycle agenda reached a new high water mark today with the announcement that a cyclists-only lane is being added to the long-under-construction Second Avenue Subway. The memo, authored by Deputy Mayor for Communications Howard Wolfson, makes the case that creating the city’s first subterranean bike-lane will reduce bicycle accidents by up to 15 percent, while costing a mere $1.4 billion dollars and delaying the opening of the Second Avenue line by only ten to twenty years.

The Second Avenue Subway bike lane is the latest pro-biking measure proposed by transportation commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan. Since becoming Mayor, Bloomberg has closed much of Broadway to automobiles and has overseen the addition of 225 miles of bike lanes, many of them physically separated from the main flow of traffic. This has led to some backlash, most prominently regarding a dedicated bike lane on Prospect Park West which critics say prevents only a small number of deaths, compared to how much harder it is for Senator Charles Schumer’s wife to receive deliveries at her Prospect Park West apartment from FreshDirect, Crate and Barrel, Sherry-Lehman and Interflora.

Sounds about right to me.

At 63rd Street, contractors have built a blue construction wall as they ready the station for Second Avenue Subway Service. (Photo via Ben Heckscher at The Launch Box)

Many straphangers who frequent the F train into and out of Queens have no idea that the part of the 63rd St. station they see is only half of it. Behind the ugly, bright orange wall is an unused and unfinished platform that sometimes serves as a lay-up for out-of-service trains. The tracks connect to the 57th St. station along the BMT Broadway line and will one day serve as a stop on the Second Ave. Subway.

Some preparatory work on the station has already begun, and contractors are starting to tear down the false wall between the Queens Boulevard tracks and the eventual Second Ave. Subway side. Ben Heckscher from The Launch Box took some photos of station recently. Already, contractors are working on street-level infrastructure while beginning the arduous process of remodeling a 20-year-old station that looks architecturally dated already. This part of the Second Ave. Subway project is supposed to wrap in late 2014. For a glimpse of the unused platform as it exists today, browse on over to this NYCSubway.org page.

Toward 63rd Street (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

Six hours ago, I found myself standing where few civilians have been. I am approximately 55 feet underneath Second Ave. between 91st and 92nd Streets, and I am standing inside a wet, dark, round tunnel. An industrial-sized air vent hangs above me while a set of rudimentary train tracks stretch southward as far as the eye can see. In five and a half years, the Q train, bound for Brooklyn via Second Ave. and Broadway, will rumble past that spot, but right now, it is the largest construction site in New York City.

Eleven months ago, the MTA readied the Second Ave. Subway launch box for a ceremonial start. The tunnel boring machine was set to launch, and the press and politicians gathered amidst as much pomp and circumstance as one can lend to the city’s largest ongoing public works project. I had the opportunity to attend that launch and posted the photos back in May.

Earlier today, in a far less ceremonial fashion, the MTA graciously brought a bunch of photographers and reporters down into the launch box to show the progress so far. Even as the MTA’s capital budget remains stretched to the max with a $10 billion hole, work underneath Second Ave. is proceeding at a rapid clip. The western tunnel is dug out all the way to 65th St., and the tunnel boring machine is a few hundred feet into the eastern tube. It might take another five years to finish, and the drama aboveground over station entrances and cleaner construction sites continue. There will, though, be a subway underneath a part of Second Ave. in the foreseeable future.

To get into the launch box requires a long walk down a staircase draped in scaffolding, and the first thing you notice is how truly deep the cavern is. The floor of the launch box, which will one day host the track bed and 96th St. station for the Second Ave. Subway, is around 60 feet down. While the station itself will be at around 50 feet deep, that’s more of a hike that most New York City subway riders are used to today. The next thing you notice is how wet it is. There’s water and mud everywhere, and one of the construction crews told me the wetness is natural. It’s all from the water table, and it’s all moisture that will have to be insulated so it doesn’t seep through station and tunnel walls.

Once inside, you can see just how much of a construction site it is. Heavy machinery that wouldn’t look out of place above ground sits dwarfed by the immensity of the launch box. While my photos — and these links all head to them on Flickr — look as though the launch box is well lit, it’s dark, foreboding and dirty. Sandhogs scurry about, and the subway is on its way.

I’ve embedded the slideshow at the bottom of this post, but I wanted to highlight a few photos I enjoyed: While we were underground, a crane lowered a portable toilet into the launch box. We spotted a microwave at the entrance to the western tunnel. Construction officials told us it takes around 70 minutes to walk from the launch box to the end of the tunnel at 65th St. due to the wetness and mud, and so the crews need their sustenance. The water, as you can see, is literally pouring out of the walls.

Dangling from the roof of the launch box are a series of wooden boxes. These boxes are holding the platforms that are underneath street-level manhole covers. This is infrastructure turned inside out. Above ground, federal safety regulations make sure everyone who enters the launch box is accounted for while inside the tunnel itself, it’s very dark.

After the jump, a full set of photos from the tour. Read More→

Due to budget cuts, TBM Adi will not dig out a second Second Ave. tunnel after all.

Despite the news earlier this week that the tunnel boring machine digging out the Second Ave. Subway will soon start to burrow out the eastern tunnel, the MTA has again been forced to scale back the project. Due to the $10 billion gap in the capital budget, the authority will soon cancel the eastern tunnel, sources tell me. Instead, the Second Ave. Subway will be just a one-track shuttle from 57th St. and Broadway to 96th St. and Second Ave.

“With money tight and the state slashing budgets across the board, we had no choice,” an unnamed source at MTA Capital Construction said to me today. “We could either put the entire project on hiatus again while sacrificing billions of dollars in federal funds or move forward with a one-track train that can provide some service to the Upper East Side.”

For the Second Ave. Subway, this development is another obstacle in its long and tortured history. Originally set for construction in the late 1920s, the Second Ave. Subway has run into the Great Depression, a World War and numerous recessions. The latest iteration had come to fruition in the early 2000s when a robust construction economy was driving subway expansion. At the time, plans called for three tracks, but in 2008, due to rising costs, the MTA had to cancel the third track. Now the second track is gone as well.

A one-track subway would not be unique to New York. The Franklin Ave. Shuttle currently runs on only one track, but the MTA had grand plans for the Second Ave. Subway. They had hoped to ferry up to 200,000 passengers per day while alleviating overcrowding on the Lexington Ave. lines. The one-track route will still serve thousands of passengers but the configuration will mean that only one Q train at a time can go north from 57th St. or south from 96th St. The MTA estimates it will be able to run only two or three trips per hour in each direction.

On the bright side, the MTA now expects to ready the Second Ave. line much sooner than anticipated. Work on the stations will begin immediately, and the line will open on April Fools Day in 2013.