Second Ave. Sagas

Category: MTA Construction

  • Capital Construction chief calls it quits

    Mysore Nagaraja, the head of MTA Capital Construction, has called it quits after two years, and the Daily News speculates that rising capital costs and frequent delays may be a motivating factor in his departure.

    Pete Donohue has more:

    The MTA official in charge of mega-construction projects, including the LIRR extension to Grand Central Terminal, is leaving – amid concerns about rising costs and delays.

    Mysore Nagaraja, 65, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Capital Construction Co., is departing at the end of the month to be a private-sector consultant, ending more than two decades with the authority. His knowledge is unsurpassed when it comes to the MTA’s most ambitious construction and system expansion plans, MTA board member Barry Feinstein said. “Losing Mysore is a significant loss.”

    I have no intimate knowledge of the situation, and the MTA has yet to issue a release about Nagaraja’s departure. But it’s certainly true that capital projects across the board seem to take longer than expected to complete. Rising costs are as much related to the shaky economy than they are to the man in charge, but if Nagaraja or some institutional issues are causing project delays, a change at the top can sometimes kick start a sagging department.

  • Fulton hub beset with cost overruns

    The MTA is running into more problems with the proposed Fulton Street hub. The station — a massive underground catacomb designed to connect the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, E, R, W, J and Z trains — was meant to be an anchor in the Lower Manhattan revival. But the project is running into cost overruns. Yesterday, MTA Board Member Nancy Shevell said it would require some “soul-searching” to keep the project at or near its $888 million cap. Considering that the project is already $41 million over cap and construction is very far along, I’m not quite sure how the MTA is going to pull this one off. [Metro]

  • The MTA’s Capital future will not be free

    During the Public Engagement Workshop two weeks ago, the MTA officials spent a fair amount of time speaking about the MTA’s plans for the future. The plans these officials presented were bold, necessary and, of course, expensive. In these plans is yet another reason why the MTA needs a fare hike more than most riders think.

    Linda Kleinbaum, the MTA deputy executive director for administration, and Ernest Tollerson, the MTA director of policy and media relations, spoke during the session called The Future of our Transportation System: Capital Improvements. Kleinbaum discussed the current capital programs and the physical and investment plans for the next capital programs. Tollerson spoke more on the ever-expanding regional reach of the MTA and the technological and environmental challenges the MTA will face over the next 15 years.

    To me, these 45 minutes were, at the same time, the most enlightening and most disheartening 45 minutes of the entire afternoon. They were enlightening because the MTA really opened up its planning to the public. The Authority has some very concrete plans concerning what they want to accomplish between now and 2020 when the Second Ave. Subway line should supposedly be complete. It was disheartening because the only subway expansion plans were for the Second Ave. Subway. In a time when the city could really use more subway lines, the MTA’s capital focus right now is on providing public transit access to the urban core for those living in the suburban sprawl of the Greater Metropolitan Area.

    Right now, the MTA is working five major Capital Construction projects, four of which benefit New York City Transit. The East Side Access Project is a boon for the LIRR, but the Second Ave. Subway, the 7 Line Extension, the Fulton Street Transit Center and the South Ferry Terminal will all impact subway riders in the five boroughs. In addition to these projects, the MTA also has to maintain its visible aspects — railcars, buses and stations — and its invisible aspects — pumps, power substations, tracks, switches, etc.

    With a price tag of $21.3 billion from 2005 to 2009, these projects and regular maintenance all cost a large chunk of change. Right now, the city and state are kicking in just 19 percent of that funding while the feds are throwing in 31 percent and the MTA through bonds and other funds sources is generating the rest. That 19 percent is up from 2 percent during the early years of this decade. No wonder the MTA is skeptical that the state and city will deliver on Spitzer’s promise of money.

    The next found of capital improvements are due to the state by March 31, 2008, and the MTA has a good sense of what they want to do. Outside of the Second Ave. Subway and 7 Line Extension — still the biggest fiscal parts of the new capital plan — the MTA wants a third track on the main line of the LIRR, Metro-North tracks on the Tappan Zee Bridge, Penn Station Access for Metro-North (and Moynihan Station), a Stewart Airport rail connection, and computer-based train controls to allow for a higher train frequency. These proposals are estimated to cost at least another $22.278 billion over a four-year span.

    Meanwhile, the subways have to keep up with the Jones’. MetroCard technology is woefully out of date, and touchcard entry systems are the wave of the present. Route signs with the times until the next trains are now standard in every other major subway system except ours, and as London and Paris, the MTA’s main competitors, if you will, invest in their systems, ours becomes more and more out of date.

    All of this is to say that money does not grown on trees, and MTA CEO and Executive Director Lee Sander is well aware of the need to provide for the future of this city’s public transportation. As politicians continue to grandstand over the MTA’s fare hike, Sander has tried to go on the offensive with his justifications for a fare hike. Yesterday, speaking to the New York Building Congress, Sander discussed the billions of dollars required to ensure the MTA’s capital and fiscal future.

    “That is how the MTA will be able to move the millions more that we expect in the region, and it’s critical we get the support from Albany to do that,” Sander said, referring to the plans I’ve detailed above. “I’m asking not just for the $600 million, but also billions of additional dollars that we have not asked from Albany before for our capital program.”

    While Sander will indeed ask Albany for this money, he knows not to expect too much from the state or city. As long-time reader Julia noted a few days ago, how is the state, already facing multi-billion-dollar debt, going to find more money for the MTA? “I’m just not convinced that Albany, facing a $4.3 billion deficit, is supposedly going to find $350 million to use toward fares and tolls in the long-term as well as finding money for the capital program,” he said.

    And that is why the fare hike is a necessary evil. The subways are cheap. For less than $2, riders can go anywhere in the city at any time and in a relatively timely fashion. A fare hike will provide a fiscal benefit to the MTA and a material benefit to the rider in the form of badly-needed capital improvements.

    While Straphangers guru Gene Russianoff feels that the MTA is simply throwing flashy projects out there to justify a fare hike — “It’s not real,” he said. “It’s a plan. It’s an idea.” — we need to consider this fare hike in the larger picture of New York City. Instead of grandstanding for populist support, our politicians should recognize this reality too.

    Mayor Bloomberg, one of New York’s most fiscally responsible citizens, hasn’t come out against the fare hike. He knows that the MTA needs this money, and he knows what they want to do with it. Others should follow his lead. Those capital improvements don’t fund themselves.

  • NYCT plans years of ‘F’-ing construction on Culver Viaduct

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    The designs for the Culver Viaduct work at 4th Ave. are a huge improvement over the current bombed-out shell of a subway station. (Source: New York City Transit)

    The Culver Viaduct sure has been on our minds for the better part of 2007. A key component to the dreams of Brooklynites to enjoy the F as an express train, the Viaduct is in terrible shape and living seemingly on borrowed time.

    Earlier this month, the MTA announced the details of their viaduct rehabilitation plans which will turn the Viaduct stations — one at Smith-9th Sts. and one at 4th Avenue — into crown jewels of the subway system. Recently, at a Community Board 6 meeting in Brooklyn, New York City Transit unveiled the architectural renderings and track work plans for the extensive renovations. There is, of course, good news and bad news.

    4thavecurrentsmall.jpg The good news first: The renderings of the stations look fantastic. On top of this post is what the station at 4th Ave. will look like in a four years. At left is what the station looks like now. (Click to enlarge.) The difference is night and day. Gone are the boarded-up windows and grungy outside.

    fourthplatsmall.jpg With views up and down Brooklyn’s admittedly less-than-scenic 4th Ave., the station will no longer be an isolated island in the subway system. Meanwhile, the stations will look just as nice on the inside (see left). Looks good. Too bad we have to wait so long for the finished product.

    Finally, in the good news department, comes news of the G train. Beginning next year, the MTA will run the G out to Church Ave., and that service addition will be permanent. In an effort to alleviate F train overcrowding, Manhattan-bound passengers in Kensington and Park Slope can now take the G to Hoyt-Schermerhorn and transfer to the A or C. Otherwise, the G will now allow riders to take a one-seat ride from Greenpoint to Kensington. The good folks at Kensington (Brooklyn) are quite pleased with his news.

    But — and this is a rather big but — the project comes with its fair share of bad news, both centered around things we already knew. As I’ve reported in the past, the F Express Plan won’t come to fruition until this viaduct work is completed, but that’s bad news only in the abstract. Worse is the news that the Smith-9th St. stop will be closed for the better part of 2010 with service changes (details available here in PDF form and below) affecting the line for the better part of four years.

    This project will be divided into four phases, each with varying degrees of impact. Take a look:

    Phase 1 – Set to kick off next fall, the first phase, lasting 15 months, will have only a minimal impact on the line. The center express tracks will be closed as crews will be conducting structural work on the viaduct. At this point, the G will begin running to Church Ave., and the F will run normally.

    Phase 2A – During the second stage of work, things get dicey. For four months, the northbound local tracks will be out of service. The F and the G will run express from Church Ave. to Smith-9th Sts. with southbound trains providing service to 15th St.-Prospect Park and Ft. Hamilton Parkway. Northbound trains will service 4th Ave. via a temporary platform, and Smith-9th Sts. will be closed completely with shuttle bus service running along the path the train currently takes. Good thing that’s only four months in MTA time.

    Phase 2B – The second part of Phase 2 will last 8 months, but service will slowly return to some semblance of normality. The F and G will run local on the northbound tracks except the trains will bypass Smith-9th Sts. for the first five months of this phase. Smith-9th Sts. will reopen after nine months of repairs and renovations in the middle of phase 2B, but at that point, northbound, only the G will stop there while southbound both the F and the G will service that station.

    Phase 3A – This is, in effect, the opposite of Phase 2A. Southbound trains will run express from Smith-9th Sts. to Church Ave. with northbound service only to 15th St.-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway. Temporary platforms will service southbound F and G riders at 4th Ave. and southbound G riders only at Smith-9th Sts. This phase will take around five months.

    Phase 3B – The last ten months before things get back to normal constitute phase 3B. Here, F and G trains return to local service south of Smith-9th Sts., but Smith-9th Sts. will be service southbound by G trains on a temporary platform. Northbound service will be normal.

    Phase 4 – For the last three months of work, riders along the newly-extended G line and F line won’t notice a thing. NYCT is installing new switches on the express tracks just north of 4th Ave. that should allow for that long-awaited F express service.

    So there you have it. That is a 45-month project to completely renovate the Culver Viaduct. When all is said and done, the G train will be vastly improved, and if NYCT holds to its word, express service will start along the F line. But for now, as residents in Brooklyn face around four years of service delays and shuttle buses, it’s no wonder that many residents are not too happy.

  • Subway history rests behind some not-so-old walls

    This plaque sat behind the walls at Columbus Circle for over 100 years. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

    In mid-October — Saturday the 13th, to be precise — I found myself on the uptown IRT platform at the Columbus Circle platform. Now, as anyone who ever travels through that station is well aware, the reconstruction of the station, due to last until 2009, makes walking through that station rather unpleasant. Dust, debris and closed staircases and passageways are everywhere.

    But for New York City history buffs, certain parts of the renovation provide glimpses into the long-forgotten past of the city’s 103-year-old subway system. So there I was, three weeks ago, walking on the platform when I happened past a rather white wall that hadn’t been there the last time. I did a double-take, saw an interesting plaque and shot the picture on display above.

    Clearly, I had discovered something — and an Art Nouveau something to boot — that had been there the last time I was in Columbus Circle, but I didn’t know it. This decorative plaque had been hidden over the decades by a new (and uglier) wall on the platform. This something was an old tile that read, “The tiles in this exhibit were the product of the American Encaustic Tiling Co. Limited.” The American Encaustic Tiling Co. Limited had its offices in Zanesville, Ohio, and New-York, New York, the hyphen serving as a throwback to another age.

    Not knowing much about the tile, I turned to Kevin Walsh’s excellent Forgotten-NY site where Walsh had recently posted a piece on the history on display at Columbus Circle But he didn’t know much about the tile either. And then l I opened today’s New York Times to find this article about a tile long lost to history that dates from 1901. The American Encaustic Tiling Co. Limited, a 1935 victim of the Great Depression, installed this plaque as part of a larger exhibit. William Neuman writes:

    It turns out that the 59th Street station was a kind of proving ground for the architects Heins & LaFarge in 1901, three years before the Interborough Rapid Transit Company trains began running through it.

    “The architects used its walls as an art gallery, experimenting with decorative ideas in various colors of tiles and other materials,” Philip Ashforth Coppola wrote in “Silver Connections: A Fresh Perspective on the New York Area Subway Systems” (Four Oceans Press, 1984). “When the real decorating of Columbus Circle began, all these preliminary experiments were covered over and forgotten.” That is, until this fall.

    The plaque and the tiles surrounding it, which were also experimental, are cemented into an 18-inch-thick original structural wall, said Paul J. Fleuranges, a New York City Transit vice president. That wall is being removed to provide more passenger space. Complicating an already complex job, Mr. Fleuranges said, “the historical find has presented project managers with another set of problems to solve.”

    How cool is that? Hidden behind the formerly ugly and nondescript walls on the IRT platform at Columbus Circle was a laboratory for Heins and LaFarge, designers of the subway stations we see today.

    Now, while the old white tiles and long-lost plaque are slated for removal, worry not about their fates. Fleuranges said that this plaque, an 106-year-old glimpse back into another era, will be carefully dismantled and retired to the Transit Museum for the enjoyment of transit buffs and NYC history mavens.

    But until that date, Columbus Circle, for the price of a Metrocard swipe, is a living history exhibit. Straphangers of all stripes have the chance to take a look back at the subway as it once was in the early days of the Twentieth Century. So the next time you find yourself at 59th St. rushing through the subway, slow down, take a look at this plaque, and wonder what other long-forgotten pieces of subway history are hidden behind the walls of the New York City subway system.

  • MTA finally addressing that whole ‘It’s too hot in the subways’ issue

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    The new South Ferry Terminal will address the inadequacies of the current station while providing a transfer point to the Whitehall Street station. (Courtesy of MTA Capital Construction)

    Two capital construction stories from the weekend; two examples of the MTA’s apparent decision to address the issue of overwhelmingly oppressive heat in the subway systems. Finally.

    The first was this so-called NY1 Bobby Cuza “exclusive” on the 7 line extension. In the story, aptly covered here by SUBWAYblogger, Cuza writes about the plans to enclose the new 7 line platforms in glass doors.

    I’ve written about these glass doors before, and I’ll maintain my position. Those doors will not be worth the cost. While the MTA hopes to air condition these train platforms on the Far West Side, the doors will break or be broken by unruly riders. They will malfunction; they will be a general nuisance.

    The good folks on Subchat have engaged in an epic discussion on these doors, and this post seems to summarize everyone’s feelings. “Utter waste of public money. Wait until they all break down and nobody can get into or out of the train,” board contributor Olog-Hai said.

    The other story, also from Cuza, focused on the new South Ferry station. I’ve written little about this capital construction project simply because it’s fairly unremarkable. The $500 million station is funded through federal 9/11 funds; it’s on time; and it’s a much-needed upgrade. Of note is the news about the potential for the station to be climate controlled:

    The new terminal will not only save riders an estimated two to five minutes on their trips, it will also be fully accessible, provide a connection to the R/W station at Whitehall Street, and pump cool air onto the platforms in the summer.

    “It’s not 100 percent air-conditioned, but the temperature in the station will be at least about 10 to 15 degrees below the outside temperature,” [Mysore Nagaraja, head of MTA Capital Construction,] said.

    In July, I noted that the MTA had opted to ignore the heat issue on these line report cards. But today, I’m glad to hear that the MTA is starting to address this issue. It’s always oppressively hot in the subway stations during the summer. While I think the glass doors represent poor solutions to this problem, I have to applaud the MTA for taking the initiative to address a problem that will only get worse as the temperature outside climbs.

  • Checking up on the Columbus Circle construction

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    MTA workers lay out the floor on the downtown IND platform at Columbus Circle. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak.)

    It’s hard to find a station in worse shape right now than the Columbus Circle hub. The station — a key transfer point between the West Side IRT and the 8th Ave. and 6th Ave. lines — is in the middle of an extensive renovation that won’t end until 2009 at the earliest.

    It’s not a stretch of the imagination to call the current state of the station is a huge disaster. Blue construction walls dot the station’s landscape, and platform sizes have become severely restricted as work crews attend to matters as large as asbestos abatement (West Side IRT) and floor reconstruction (IND platforms). While in April, I wrote an extensive post looking at the overall plans for the station, let’s take a peek, by way of some subtlely-taken Blackberry photos, of the current state of the station.

    As I’m currently undergoing physical therapy at an office on 57th St. between Broadway and 8th Ave., I have the pleasure of navigating this station two days a week now. Progress is haphazard; one day, a staircase will be open, and the next day, it will be shut. One day, sections of the platform will be roped off; the next day, they’ll be open.

    Mainly, what I’ve seen are crews working on the floors on the IND platforms. For months, the platforms have existed below grade with the trains. Warning signs urged straphangers to watch their steps. Now, the platforms are rising up, at least in the middle, to meet the train doors. Take a look:

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  • Report: Track workers’ culture encourages safety violations

    After a thorough review, New York City Transit has released two reports about the deaths in April of track workers who were struck by trains. The reports were highly critical of the organizational culture of the track workers and blamed the deaths on safety standards that are ignored at work sites across the system.

    The New York Times has more on the two reports:

    The reports delivered a broad indictment of safety practices on the subway tracks, and called for discipline to be considered for three of the supervisors involved, along with a major overhaul of safety procedures.

    In one of the accidents, a report said, workers carried heavy equipment across live tracks without covering the electrified third rail or setting up warning lights to alert oncoming trains. In the same accident, the report said, a supervisor assured the two workers he would act as a flagman, watching for trains, and then left his post. Moments later, one worker was dragged under a train and died, and another was seriously injured when he was pinned between the train and a wall.

    Howard Roberts, president of New York City Transit, voiced his concerns about the approach to safety on the rails. “There are some major barriers, the primary one being cultural, that we have to figure out how to handle,” he said. “In many cases people do not follow the rules and consider the rules in some cases not to be particularly pertinent to how they see themselves as getting the work done.”

    The more critical of the two reports examined Marvin Franklin’s death by the wheels of a G train at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. According to that report (PDF here), one of the work supervisors did not maintain his position as Franklin helped carry equipment over live tracks.

    The other report (PDF here) noted that the work supervisors didn’t even know the proper safety procedures for ensuring that the tracks are cleared before sending workers across. In this incident, Daniel Boggs was killed by an 3 train on the downtown express tracks in Manhattan at a time when he thought there were no more express trains that night.

    In all likelihood, the work supervisors will be disciplined, and the MTA has already instituted a whole slew of new safety measures. The MTA has issued new radios to work crews. They plan to enforce flagging of adjacent active tracks during work times. They are working to ensure that all emergency radio and phone boxes are in working order, and they are attempting to limit the noise in the tracks so workers can hear trains coming.

    To me, these measures seem like common sense. Working on the tracks is one of the most dangerous jobs in New York. Following safety procedures is a matter of survival.

    TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint seemed to agree. “These are concrete steps in the right direction,” he said.”For us at TWU, there is no doubt that structural safety deficiencies —including a lack of communication, as well as faulty procedures and rules — contributed to the deaths of Danny Boggs and Marvin Franklin. We are committed to working with the leadership of NYC Transit to ensure meaningful change and does justice to our members who have made the ultimate sacrifice.”

  • Just why is it going to take so long to build a new subway?

    If you squint, you can almost see a subway. (The hole in the ground at Second Ave. from Curbed).

    78thAnd2nd, an online friend of Second Ave. Sagas, is guest blogging at Curbed this week. For his post, he hit upon an interesting question: Why is it going to take so damn long to get this Second Ave. subway built?

    The MTA shut down parts of Second Ave. a few weeks ago, and since then, not much has happened on the street. Meanwhile, as we all know quite well, the Second Ave. subway project is due to last until 2020, and even the three stops that make up Phase I of this project won’t be completed until 2013.

    So to answer our question, we turn to a recent piece by Alex Marshall, editor of the Regional Plan Association’s newsletter. He writes:

    The first phase of the Second Avenue subway is a tenth the size of the original IRT in track length and has three stations as opposed to 28. Yet it will take six years to complete as opposed to four for the much larger IRT. Why is this?…

    I think part of the answer is funding. If the funding stream for the Second Avenue subway were doubled, for example, could construction time be cut in half? If you add up all the time lost to individuals stuffed onto overcrowded subways on the Lexington Avenue line, if you contemplated the dollar value of the new development that will spring from the East Side once the Second Avenue is completed, it would make sense to spend a lot more money sooner to make the subway happen more quickly.

    Marshall also notes that micromanagement and the recent attention to environmental studies, historical impact and and workplace safety measures contribute to the snail’s pace of construction.

    The point however is one I made earlier today, and the one those commenting on my post this morning are making. New York City should be willing to spend money now to get its public transportation infrastructure ready for the next 100 years. The city, once a visionary in this field, has stagnated. Now we need someone to deliver the proverbial kick in the pants. But what politician will shepherd through a multi-billion-dollar subway expansion plan? Anyone?

  • $80 million overhaul for W. 96th St. station heads to a hearing

    Preliminary sketches of the new station show the shifting sidewalks and traffic patterns on Broadway. (Click to enlarge; Courtesy of the MTA)

    Please note, the hearing mentioned below is scheduled for Wednesday, June 6, and not Tuesday as the post originally implied. My fault.

    Nearly one year ago, Community Board 7, the lords of the Upper West Side, overwhelmingly supported a plan to overhaul the northern entrances of the 96th St. stop on the IRT. Tomorrow, these plans — a drastic reconstruction of one of the system’s oldest stations — will inch one step closer to reality as the MTA hosts a public hearing on the proposed Station Access Changes.

    Currently, the 96th St. station entrances are a bit of a disaster. Passengers have to enter on either the southwest or southeast corners of Broadway. They must walk down one narrow staircase to reach the turnstile area. After swiping through, riders then have to walk down another set of narrow staircases to each a tunnel underneath both the uptown and downtown platforms. Then, straphangers have to walk up yet another staircase to reach the platform.

    Additionally, the entrance on the southeast corner of Broadway and 96th St. is open only during the day. Any nighttime passengers heading north must cross the street to get to an open entrance and then walk back that length to reach the uptown platform.

    The plans to streamline station access and to make this high-volume station handicapped-accessible are, according to the MTA, as follows:

    NYC Transit proposes to close the sidewalk stairs on the southwest and southeast corners of 96th and Broadway and to replace these entrances with a head house built on an expanded Broadway median between 95th and 96th Streets. The new head house will have stairs and elevators leading directly to the uptown and downtown platforms. This entrance will be open and staffed full time.

    The sidewalk entrances need to close because the Broadway median must be expanded to make room for the head house. To allow for the widened median the Broadway sidewalks will be narrowed and the sidewalk area where the stairs are now will be eliminated.

    This is an interesting plan, and it’s hard to come out against it at first brush. Most notably, these plans will provide elevator access (that is, handicapped access) to the first (or last) transfer point on the West Side IRT lines. It will also reduce the total elevation change for passengers from 43 feet (down-down-up) to just 19 feet (down). Furthermore, the four seven-foot wide staircases to the platform will replace the current two five-foot wide staircases thus reducing station congestion.

    But on the other hand (or the “disbenefits,” as the MTA terms it) are the additional walking people will have to do above ground. The new structure will be fifty feet south of the current entrances and in the center of Broadway. The MTA claims that the two out of every three passengers who have to wait at a red light to cross Broadway will be delayed a whopping 26 seconds.

    As a native of the Upper West Side, though, I’m much more concerned with the decrease in available sidewalk space. The new plans call for moving Broadway nine feet on either direction to compensate for the wider island in the center of Broadway. While the sidewalks would be 15 feet wide, that’s a big decrease from their current width of 23 feet.

    But the benefits of the station house should outweigh one shorter block. It will be easier and faster to enter one of the more crowded stations on the West Side. Meanwhile, above ground, the station will resemble the new structure at 72nd St. The same firm is signed on for this project, and the plans call for a wider median with a seating area at 96th St. leading to the station entrance in the middle of the block. That sounds good to me.

    MTA Public Hearing: Station Access Changes, Wednesday, June 6, 6 p.m., MTA Headquarters, 347 Madison Avenue – Fifth Floor

    For more images of the plans for the rehabilitated 96th St. station, click here