Second Ave. Sagas

Openings: West End Line, Fulton St. mezzanine

Written by

Benjamin Kabak

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Odili Donald Odita's Kaleidoscope at the 20th Avenue station is one of many new pieces of art along the West End Line. (Photo MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design)

A little bit of housekeeping, so to speak, as the MTA announced yesterday two project completions. The three-year rehab work along the West End Line wrapped up with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday morning. The centerpiece of this project was a transformation of the Bay Parkway station into a fully ADA-compliant stop with three elevators. It is the 78th ADA “key station” in the system, and the MTA is now just 22 away from their promised goal.

In addition to a standard station rehab with lighting, platform edges and new staircases, Bay Parkway now features a system of free-standing pedestal speakers that provide riders with real-time information. These are i place as the station’s canopies do not extend the length of the platform. The other six stations — 71st Street, 79th Street, 18th Avenue, 20th Avenue, 25th Avenue and Bay 50th Street — underwent component-based repair efforts, and the 33,000 riders who use these stations will no longer have to battle delays and construction.

Overall, the $88 million projected funded through 2009 stimulus dollars brought station elements and the elevated structure south of 62nd Street into a state of good repair. That elevated structure, of course, was made famous in The French Connection. The rehab also features new station art developed by Arts for Transit. The MTA’s official Flickr feed had an album of the new art. I’m partial to the Kaleidoscope at 20th Avenue.

Meanwhile, at 7 a.m. yesterday, Transit re-opened the connection at Fulton St. between the A/C mezzanine and the southbound J/Z platform. The little-used transfer had been closed since March 5. With the re-opening of this transfer — although not the completion of work on this contract — the entire A/C mezzanine is now open, and the reconfigured platform access brings the total set of stairs available for straphangers to 10. The Fulton St. Transit Center is still on pace for a June 2014 completion date.

Comments

14 responses to “Openings: West End Line, Fulton St. mezzanine”

  1. Andy

    That art looks really nice. It’s always the arts the gets the axe first when it comes to budget cuts, nice to see the MTA is not letting that go.

    Happy to hear about the Fulton St J/Z transfer, but why does it not go there on the weekend? I travel to the upper west side often on the weekends. Not having the train go there can add a lot of time to my journey.

    Reply
  2. Spendmore Wastemore

    That mural/color splash/whatever is a nice touch. The usual filthy drab station seems to say “screw you, live like a rat” while that’s like “we know, but hey we’re trying”.

    And it won’t keep billing us for $60K/year decades after it retires.

    Reply
  3. bgriff

    Does the new mezzanine mean that one can transfer between the 4/5 and 2/3 at Fulton now without going down onto the A/C platform?

    Reply
    1. Benjamin Kabak

      When the project is finished, I know the answer will be yes. Right now, I think so, but it’s unclear. I haven’t been there yet to check either.

      Reply
      1. Andrew

        Not correct – the answer will never be yes, since the bilevel BMT line is in the way. Directly above the BMT is the street; directly below the BMT is the IND. The only way to get from one side of the BMT to the other will be via the IND platform.

        Reply
        1. Benjamin Kabak

          I always forget that the BMT is a bilevel tunnel there. The project map isn’t particularly clear on that point, but you’re right. No way to go through that tunnel.

          Reply
          1. Jerrold

            Just another consequence of the uncoordinated subway planning of the old days. Macy’s did not talk with Gimbel’s; the BMT did not talk with the IRT.

            Reply
            1. John-2

              To be fair, in the case of Fulton Street, the BMT’s Nassau Street bi-level station and the IND’s (ex-)Broadway-Nassau stop were constructed almost concurrently, the BMT opening in 1931 and the IND two years later. So the city planners knew going in that any connection would have to be done via the IND platform because that’s how they built it to work (though of course, back in 1933 there were no free transfers between the three systems other than at QP).

              Reply
            2. Andrew

              The BMT and IRT were separate companies that did not have free transfers. Why would they have cared if the nonexistent free transfers were convenient?

              And even if free transfers were the goal, what other design strategy would you have suggested? The BMT has to be on two levels – Nassau is very narrow, certainly not wide enough for two tracks and two platforms (or probably even two tracks and one narrow island platform). The IND could have ducked down one more level to allow for a single mezzanine above it, but that would have increased construction costs and made the A/C platform harder to get to and from.

              When the current project was being planned, I read some calls for a new mezzanine one block south, which could have passed under the BMT.

              Reply
  4. Lance

    Off Topic I know, but I want to get this in before you post this weekend’s service changes. I’ve started making maps similar to the ones Shawn was making.

    Click the link in my username for the map.

    Reply
  5. Jerrold

    You know I just realized something. “A/C Concourse is a bit of a confusing name.

    Like we were saying, the BMT station blocks the way. Therefore the A/C concourse can only run above the eastern part ofthe A/C platfrom, right? After all, if it were possible for that concourse to run above the ENTIRE platform, then transferring between the 2/3 and the 4/5 would require descending only to the concourse, not all the way down to the A/C platform.

    Reply
    1. Jerrold

      [I committed a few typos, so I decided to redo this post.]

      You know I just realized something. “A/C Concourse” is a bit of a confusing name.

      Like we were saying, the BMT station blocks the way. Therefore the A/C concourse can only run above the eastern part of the A/C platform, right? After all, if it were possible for that concourse to run above the ENTIRE platform, then transferring between the 2/3 and the 4/5 would require descending only to the concourse, not all the way down to the A/C platform.

      Reply
      1. Andrew

        “A/C Concourse” isn’t its name. Most of the project documents refer to separate “A/C West Mezzanine” and “A/C East Mezzanine” – for example: http://www.lowermanhattan.info…..061112.pdf

        Reply
  6. Fred

    Ribbon-cutting notwithstanding, the artwork was still boarded over today on the 20th Avenue, 18th Avenue, 79th Street, and 71st Street platforms. It was visible on the Bay Parkway mezzanine. I did not visit the two stations south of Bay Parkway (25th Avenue and Bay 50th Street, which was incorrectly mapped as 50th Street in the Flickr slide show). Of course, I found this out at night, since northbound D trains are stille running on the Sea Beach line this weekeend.

    The stations between 62nd Street and Ninth Avenue must be part of a separate contract, which will get its own ribbon-cutting and slide show. Artwork had yet been installed in all of the stations, but, ironically, it was fully visible in at least one of them.

    Reply

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