Category:

MTA Construction

MTA to connect uptown IRT to the rest of the Bleecker St./Broadway-Lafayette St. station

by Benjamin Kabak May 30, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 30, 2007

An architectural rendering of the IRT platforms with a connection to the IND platforms below. (Courtesy of Lee Harris Pomeroy. Click for a bigger view.)

Is there a more annoying station than the Broadway-Lafayette St./Bleecker St. disaster? Because you can’t transfer from the uptown 6 platform to any other train in that station, you have to know which entrance you want well ahead of time. And good luck explaining to lost tourists on the IND lines that they can’t switch to an uptown 6 without leaving the station and paying the fare again.

Over two years ago, word came out that the MTA was preparing a station rehabilitation plan for this relic of the era of dual systems and competing, separate subway lines. At the time, these plans were to cost $50 million. Since that announcement, this great idea has gone nowhere. The station is a still an odd labyrinth sort of connecting two tunnels that used to be parts of competing corporations — one owned by the Interborough Rapid Transit company, the other by the City of New York.

But all of this may change soon. In a few weeks, the MTA will hold a public hearing on a whole slew of capital projects. Since the MTA is eligible to receive nearly $1 billion in federal funds for these projects, the list is rather extensive. Buried among the more mundane station rehabilitation plans however is a three-tiered request for the Bleecker St. station and the Broadway-Lafayette St. connector.

Here, in a nutshell, is what the MTA hopes to do with this station:

Extend the northbound platform on the IRT line 290 feet to the South.
Construct a new mezzanine under the IRT platforms that would provide a connection from the uptown and downtown platforms to the uptown and downtown IND lines.
Install five elevators and an escalator as part of the Authority’s need to fulfill the ADA requirements for this station complex.

The rest of the plans for this now-$60 million rehabilitation include the standard overhaul: Restored tile mosaics, new floors, a paint job, etc. It’s a shame that inflation and higher costs will lead to a $10 million price increase, but that seems to be business as usual for the MTA’s Capital Construction department.

Personally, I love this plan. This station — unique among all of the city’s transfer points — has long been an oddity in New York. At no other point can you transfer to or from a train heading in just one direction. The companies that oversaw the Union Square rehabilitation are — Weidlinger Associates and Lee Harris Pomeroy — in charge here, and it looks like they plan to produce a snazzy looking station for the East Village/SoHo area.

The New York City subways will once again be safe from dumbstruck and confused tourists. Or at least at Bleecker St.

Click here for more pictures of the station renovation plans.

May 30, 2007 32 comments

Congestion fee to go to Second Ave. subway instead of JFK Raillink

by Benjamin Kabak May 21, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 21, 2007

The Train to the Plane has long gone the way of the Dodo. (Photo by Doug Grotjahn. Courtesy of NYCSubway.org)

Oh, the tortured history of the JFK Raillink. When last we saw this ill-fated raillink in April, the plan seemed to be hanging on precariously to life support. Now, any high-speed train to the plane is all but dead, according to the latest reports.

The New York Sun notes today that Mayor Bloomberg, long a proponent of the Lower Manhattan-JFK Raillink, has decided to compromise on this project in order to gain support for his congestion pricing plan. Elliot Sander, the MTA CEO, and Sheldon Silver, influential New York State Assembly speaker, have said they will warm up to the congestion pricing plan if more of the money goes toward financing the Second Ave. subway instead of a raillink that most transit advocates feel would be a waste of $6 billion.

In direct negotiations between Messrs. Bloomberg and Spitzer, as well as a series of discussions between city and state officials over the past week intended to hammer out a bill on congestion pricing before Memorial Day, talk has turned to omitting some transit improvements that were included in the city’s original 2030 plan, according to multiple sources close to the negotiations.

The $3.75 billion that was earmarked in the city’s sustainability plan for a rail link that would provide a direct connection between Lower Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport, instead could help pay for the completion of the Second Avenue Subway, currently under construction but not yet fully funded … The East Side subway line, which would serve Mr. Silver’s district in Lower Manhattan if completed, has long been one of the speaker’s favored projects, as well as a priority for Mr. Spitzer.

According to The Sun, support from Silver and Sander would go a long way toward legitimizing Bloomberg’s plans in the eyes of the federal government. And with the approval of the federal government comes more money for transportation in New York City.

The money itself was be funneled to the Second Ave. subway through the proposed SMART authority, a topic I will touch upon later this week. Meanwhile, transit advocates are pleased to hear that the City is narrowing its focus to a few major construction projects that have a higher chance of being completed instead of many minor projected that never seem to move forward.

This plan, in my idea, is the missing piece of the NYC2030 plan. It ensures that the Second Ave. subway has a dedicated source of funding and allays concerns that The Line That Almost Never Was will still be just a figment of our imagination. Furthermore, it all but kills the JFK Raillink, a rapid transit line that would affect far fewer people than the Second Ave. subway will. It’s good to see some common-sense economics emerging from the cooperation between the City, State and MTA.

May 21, 2007 5 comments

MTA Absurdity MTA Construction

Alarm boxes finally repaired, 338 days later

by Benjamin Kabak May 14, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 14, 2007

Sometimes, bad news hits the press on Saturday or Sunday, and no one notices. Luckily for the MTA, the news about their alarm boxes and the safety of track workers did just that as word came out yesterday that nearly 10 percent of track alarm boxes are out of service.

A report in The New York Post noted that the MTA had finally fixed the alarm box near 59th St.-Columbus Circle, three weeks after Daniel Boggs died after getting hit by a train and a whopping 338 days after a repair order for the box was first submitted. The boxes themselves act to immediately cut power to the third rail in a 1000-foot length of track thus allowing workers three minutes to contact command control before the power is restored. The problem at 59th St. centered around a communications cable that had knocked out power to six surrounding alarm boxes. The Post has more on this problem:

A repair order was issued on June 13, 2006, for at least one of the emergency alarms at the Columbus Circle subway station. That’s where Daniel Boggs, 42, was struck by a train and pushed against the third rail last month, on April 24. Witnesses said his body was smoldering by the time the power was turned off.

Last Sunday, a repair crew replaced the burned-out communications cable that had knocked out six alarm boxes along a stretch of track. The same faulty cable had rendered at least two emergency phones useless. It’s not known whether Boggs died upon impact or after coming in contact with the 600-volt third rail. Afterward, the agency admitted that 70 emergency alarm boxes were out of service and said crews were working to catch up with the glut of repair tickets.

But documents obtained by The Post showed that 188 emergency boxes – more than double the NYC Transit estimate – were out.

Had these alarm boxes been functioning properly, one of Boggs’ fellow crew members could have cut power before Boggs came into contact with that dangerous third rail. More alarming for MTA construction workers are those other 188 boxes still out of service. As Howard Roberts, NYCT’s president, tries to play up the MTA’s commitment to worker safety, his first step ought to be repairing this alarm boxes. It’s a no-brainer.

May 14, 2007 1 comment

East Side Access Project MTA Construction

East Side Access tunnel, idle for 30 years, ready to complete the journey

by Benjamin Kabak May 11, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 11, 2007

The lower level of the 63rd St. tunnel will soon burrow its way to Grand Central Terminal. (Jacob Silberberg for The New York Times)

Alaska has its Bridge to Nowhere. New York, unbeknownst to most New Yorkers, has its Tunnel to Nowhere.

Built underneath the East River in the 1970s, the 63rd St. Tunnel is an artifact of the age of misguided optimism in New York City transportation history. At the time, the city administrations, finally crawling out from under the oppressive shadow cast by the Master Builder Robert Moses, wanted to get all of the public works in order that would actually help the city’s residents instead of the suburban drivers.

The 63rd Street Tunnel was supposed to connect Long Island City with Manhattan, but it sat dormant until 1989. The final connection — the F line as it is now with a stop at 63rd and Lexington, Roosevelt Island and 21st St.-Queesbridge to the IND Queens Boulevard Line — didn’t open until 2001. Optimism reigned so supreme in the 1970s that the 63rd St.-Lexington Ave. track patterns were designed to incorporate the Second Ave. Subway which was set for completion by the end of the 1970s. Hopefully, nearly 40 years later, the tracks will finally serve their intended purpose.

Meanwhile, the city built a second tunnel underneath the subway tunnels. This tunnel was originally intended to serve the LIRR into a stop at 48th Street and 3rd Ave. as well as a terminus for a proposed high-sped line to JFK Airport. Well, we all know how those plans turned out, and the second tunnel was abandoned with a dead end sitting in the Manhattan Schist leading literally nowhere.

Now, 30 years later, this second tunnel — the Tunnel to Nowhere — will finally go somewhere. Gone are the plans for a stop at 48th and 3rd and gone, sadly, are the plans for a high-speed raillink to JFK. Instead, we have the East Side Access project. And now, as The Times notes, the pieces are in place for the tunnel and this ambitious commuter rail extension. With a tunnel boring machine en route from Italy, soon work will start in earnest on this project.

Over the next few weeks, the parts will be hauled to Queens and carried through the 63rd Street tunnel under the East River, to a rock cavern about 140 feet below the corner of Second Avenue and 63rd Street in Manhattan. There, the machine will be assembled and, by the end of the year, it will begin chewing through the rock of Manhattan, headed for Grand Central Terminal…

Even today, the tunnel’s lower deck still leads nowhere. Built to carry Long Island Rail Road trains to the East Side of Manhattan, the tunnel’s lower portion was never connected to anything, and it has remained a dead-end anomaly, a testament to high aspirations and low finances.

When it begins its slow trip under Manhattan, grinding through the rock at the rate of about 50 feet a day, the 200-ton machine will travel southwest to Park Avenue and then south to Grand Central.

So there it is, and I love the phrasing in this article. “A testament to high aspirations and low finances,” indeed.

But now things are falling into place for ambitious subway projects. We’ll have boring machines making their way to Grand Central Terminal and others working down Second Avenue. Finally, New York City is getting its much-needed public transportation upgrades. Just don’t pay any attention to the finances as the federal government is picking up just 40 percent of the East Side Access project’s $6.3 billion price tag. That is the worry for another day.

For some great pictures inside the Tunnel to Nowhere, head on over to this post at AMNY’s Tracker blog.

May 11, 2007 4 comments

MTA Construction

MTA stressing safety after deadly week

by Benjamin Kabak May 2, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on May 2, 2007

After a week that witnessed two track workers killed by oncoming trains, the MTA used a mandatory work stand-down to stress safety. Their main message? Do not take short cuts.

According to William Neuman in The New York Times, in the wake of the two deaths last week, New York City Transit officials have drawn up a 60-page document designed to instruct workers on the necessary safety protocols that should guide this dangerous job. The document stressed the importance of following basic safety rules, a task often ignored by those working in the subway tunnels.

The review also found that the most common cause of worker deaths was failure to look for an oncoming train before stepping onto the tracks. That may have been what happened on April 24 when Daniel Boggs, 41, a veteran track worker, was killed when he stepped in the path of a No. 3 express train at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, according to transit officials.

After the death of [Marvin] Franklin, Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit, ordered a halt to maintenance and construction work on tracks and in tunnels. He also directed the agency’s safety experts, in coordination with the Transport Workers Union, to prepare the 60-page curriculum, which is the backbone for the safety refresher course that track workers are now receiving.

Interestingly, NYCT claims that overall injury numbers are down markedly since 2000, but union officials disputed this claim. The numbers, TWU officials say, are skewed because they count multiple injuries stemming from one accident as just one incident.

Meanwhile, Howard Roberts, the new president of NYCT, sent out a letter to all union members stressing his support for the thousands of subway workers who toil away under dangerous conditions. Considering the bitterness that has long existed between the MTA and the TWU, it’s refreshing to see moments of labor peace in the subway. It’s such a shame that the price tag for this peace included the lives of two workers.

May 2, 2007 1 comment

MTA Construction

Second transit worker death in five days prompts track work shut down

by Benjamin Kabak April 30, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 30, 2007

Sad news from the weekend track work: For the second time in five days, a transit employee conducting track work was killed after being struck by an oncoming train. As a result of this accident, New York City Transit head Howard Roberts ordered an immediate stand-down of all track work. This temporary suspension in maintenance and construction will last until the MTA investigates these two deaths and the work crews have been sufficiently trained in safety protocols.

According to news reports, Marvin Franklin, 55, a Queens resident and 20-year transit employee, died after a northbound G train hit him and Jeff Hill as they were crossing the tracks at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station just after 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The two, police say, were in the station as part of the extensive trackbed replacement project on the A/C tracks. While two of three trains that pass through this downtown Brooklyn station were not running this weekend, G service was not affected by the service cuts.

The New York Times has more about the accident:

Roger Toussaint, the president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, said the men were not working on the reconstruction, but were taking advantage of the service interruption to replace the metal plates that sit between the rails and the ties.

A senior official at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, who spoke about the accident on the condition of anonymity, said that a preliminary investigation indicated that the men had gone to fetch a dolly and were carrying it across the G track on their way back to the A and C track when they were hit.

The official said that an alternative route would have involved taking the dolly up the platform stairs, through the station and down another set of stairs to the opposite platform.

The operator of the G train apparently saw the two workers and tried to stop, but it was too late. Based on the preliminary investigation, officials believe that the G track may not have been equipped with warning lights that would have made the driver slow down and watch out for track workers, the official said.

Roberts, just a week into his job as head of NYCT, got word of this accident as he was on the way to Brewster in upstate New York for a wake for Daniel Boggs. Boggs was killed last week as he worked on the Columbus Circle renovations. He was struck by a downtown 3 train at 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday night just as the train, one of the last scheduled on the express tracks sped through the station.

Roberts and MTA CEO Elliot “Lee” Sander arrived at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop and issued the stand-down order on the spot. Workers in the subway this evening finished up projects that enable trains to run on schedule this week. No work will resume until MTA and Transit Workers Union officials are satisfied that proper safety measures have been adequately explained to TWU employees. There is no word on how this will affect ongoing maintenance projects or Capital Construction projects such as the Second Ave. Subway.

But as the MTA and the TWU reel from the second tragedy in five days, straphangers across the city are pulling for Hill, the survivor of the accident who is currently in stable condition at Bellevue.

April 30, 2007 2 comments

MTA Construction Second Avenue Subway

MTA unveils designs for ostentatious Second Ave. entrances

by Benjamin Kabak April 16, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 16, 2007

One of the nicer aspects of the New York City subway stops are the way they blend into the city. The entrances are clearly marked with the tell-tale green/red light globes and a familiar-looking staircase. Whether you’re in Park Slope or near Central Park West, the subways look the same.

Now along comes this interloper. It’s a new fancy-shmancy subway line, and the MTA wants to make it look ostentatiously ridiculous. These new entrances, as shown above, really announce the subway. Instead of fitting in with the densely-populated residential neighborhoods on the East Side, that entrance — a sample mock-up of a planned Second Ave. subway entry — announce themselves in a loud and practically obnoxious way.

In fact, this entrance looks amazingly similar to the new entry canopies recently installed in Washington, D.C. (pictures opens in new window). When I lived in D.C. in 2005-2006, these canopies were just being installed, and they are, to put it kindly, hideous. They obscure the neighborhoods in which they are installed and are a huge eye-sore. While they are designed as weather protection for the escalators in the Metro, as visual components to a public works system, they simply do not work.

Meanwhile, some critics of the New York City subway system may appreciate these new entrances. After all, if you don’t know where the subway entrance is, it’s nearly impossible to find it in some neighborhoods. Ever try locating that Spring St. stop on the C or E? These entrances sure do announce themselves.

Not everyone is as opposed to these entry behemoths as I am. SUBWAYblogger seems to disagree, but he does raise some valid questions. Why is the MTA releasing these photos five to ten years before the stations actually open? Why would they spend so much on an aspect of the project that’s purely for show?

Personally, I do not endorse these preliminary designs, but the MTA works in mysterious ways sometimes. And hey, 2013 is a ways off. Maybe the designs can change for the better.

For more pictures of the planned designs, click the more link below or click here for a bigger view. (Opens in a new window.)

April 16, 2007 10 comments

MTA Construction Second Avenue Subway

Second Ave. residents fret as subway groundbreaking draws near

by Benjamin Kabak April 10, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 10, 2007

We’re just two days away from the Second Ave. subway’s third groundbreaking ceremony. While those of us rooting for another subway line are celebrating, those living in the path of the MTA’s plans are facing eviction. Needless to say, these New Yorkers are unhappy campers.

Over the weekend, The Daily News caught up with some of the residents who will be eminent-domained out of their Upper East Side apartments.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority informed [the retired Giorgio]Costa and his neighbors of the plan in 2004. They were greatly concerned but the panic was tempered by the knowledge that politicians and transit types had been promising to create the new subway line for decades without success.

The reality has finally sunk in.

Costa pays $605 a month in rent – far below the market rate in the neighborhood, where an influx of young professionals has driven rents beyond what most retirees can afford. MTA officials said Costa’s five-story building on the corner of E. 69th St. and Second Ave. must be demolished to make room for station exits and equipment. Thirty buildings will be knocked down for the $17 billion project, the MTA said.

Tamer El-Ghobashy’s article is fairly grim. While the MTA has acknowledged that, under federal law, it must find comparable replacement apartments, nearly everyone in New York knows just how tough the real estate market is. One representative from the Corcoran Group says the MTA won’t be too successful replacing these 400 units unless they can find “friendly landlords” which to me sounds something like a New York City oxymoron.

While some of the tenants facing eviction plan to move from Manhattan, a part of me has to wonder about the East Siders’ complacency. The MTA told them in 2004 that this subway line would be built this time; it’s been pretty much a reality since then. These residents chose not to find housing on their own and are now up a creek without a paddle. I’m sympathetic to their plight, but at the same time, they had three years to find suitable housing.

Later today, I’ll check in with Queens where some Sunnyside residents are less than happy with the East Side Access plans. It’s been a rough week as the MTA has learned that, in your efforts to please some of the people all the time, you’ll offend others all the time too.

April 10, 2007 3 comments

MTA Construction

Reconstructing the Columbus Circle station

by Benjamin Kabak April 8, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on April 8, 2007

Eventually, the Columbus Circle station will feature an entry rotunda and business women on their cell phones. (Courtesy of Dattner Architects.)

A trip though the 59th Street-Columbus Circle these days can be something of an adventure. Blue construction walls dot the upstairs IRT platforms, and construction crews and the tell-tale signs of renovations mark the IND platforms downstairs. With big, temporary support columns in place and an aura of construction chaos permeating the station, I’ve long wondered what the plans are for this popular station.

For hints about this mysterious work, the MTA’s construction Website is no help. Since this isn’t a capital construction project, there is no information about these renovations. But a few Google searches revealed that Dattner Architects, the firm behind a number of subway plans including the new entrance at 72nd St. on the IRT, and Parson Brinckerhoff, the architectural firm descended from the original designers of the subway, are spearheading this project.

And lucky for us, the Dattner Website is chock full ‘o information. Let’s head to the project page on the rehabilitation of the Columbus Circle stop. According to Dattner, here’s what’s happening at 59th Street behind those blue walls.

The Columbus Circle Station project organizes, rehabilitates and restores the sprawling station complex at Columbus Circle. A new entrance at West 60th Street makes entry to the complex more convenient and eases passenger flow. New elevators provide handicapped accessibility. Circular and oval elements at key entrances mark important parts of the station, provide a sense of place, and facilitate wayfinding for passengers. A retail galleria is proposed for the passage between West 57th and West 58th Streets. Landmark elements of the IRT Station are preserved and restored. Joint Venture with Parsons Brinckerhoff.

So I think that’s architectural speak for making the station an ADA-compliant commercial hub that is easier to navigate and looks pretty. We won’t get to enjoy the completed station until 2009 at the earliest, but let’s look at some more pretty pictures after the jump. All of these pictures are from Dattner’s renderings.

April 8, 2007 8 comments

MTA Construction MTA Economics

$50 million on one entrace is never a good idea

by Benjamin Kabak March 19, 2007

written by Benjamin Kabak on March 19, 2007

Stylized color pencil New Yorkers taking advantage of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park include…kayakers in the East River? Yummy. (Image courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy)

Every now and then, the MTA avoids spending insane amounts of money on ridiculously small projects. The once-planned subway entrance to the currently-planned Brooklyn Bridge Park falls into just that category.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park – a beautification and redevelopment plan for 76 acres along the Brooklyn waterfront – is set for completion sometime in the 2012 area. As part of the plan, a four-block underground tunnel connecting the park to the 2/3 stop at Clark St. was in the works. But, as The Daily News reports, the $50-million price tag is just a tad bit too much.

A new traffic study for the planned waterfront park has all but ruled out creating a new entrance to the Brooklyn Heights Clark St. station via an underground tunnel. “It’s going to be very expensive and will have engineering challenges,” said Jee Mee Kim, the project director with the traffic consulting firm Sam Schwartz PLLC…

The Clark St. subway station on the 2 and 3 lines has an entrance on the corner of Henry St. The proposal found that opening an entrance nearer the waterfront – at least four blocks away – would cost $30 million to $50 million.

Well, phew. I can think of much better uses for $50 million than one subway entrance for a pre-existing stop. How about a totally brand new subway line? Some cleaner cars? A better public address system? $50 million buys a lot of neat stuff.

And for those of you eagerly awaiting the park, new bus routes, water taxis and increased pedestrian and bike access points will make this green oasis with great views of Manhattan easily accessible when it finally opens in five or six years.

March 19, 2007 0 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts