Category: Second Avenue Subway

During my Thanksgiving sabbatical from blogging, news come down from on high that blasting underneath Second Ave. would cease temporarily as the MTA and its contractors work to mitigate the impact of the construction. For a project that has plowed ahead while often barely considering the impact the immediate would have on the locals, this decision to reassess the situation both below and above ground is not a small one for a project on a timeline with little margin for error.

The New York Times reported on the decision last week. Per Christine Haughney and Michael Grynbaum, the MTA has issued a two-week moratorium on blasting as it works to modify the exhaust systems and giant enclosures that are supposed to trap debris. Blasting will resume on December 5, and residents are thrilled with the decision.

Those Upper East Siders who spoke with reporters were concerned with the long-term impact such blasting would have on their health. “I don’t want it to turn into a 9/11 situation where, five to 10 years down the line we’re sick,” Donna Pressman said to Pete Donohue of The Daily News. Said Jean Schoenberger to The Times. “It’s like gun powder that is going up in the air. It is a smoke cloud that is very pervasive.”

So while it’s all well and good that the MTA is responding to community complaints and hosting a quarterly public workshop on construction progress this Wednesday, there’s another side to this story as well. As Carolyn Maloney, the Congressional representative whose constituents include Upper East Siders, said of the long-awaited subway, “The best thing to do is to finish it.”

Thus, as Christine Haughney wrote last week, a faction of Upper East Siders would prefer to see the MTA just finish the damn thing already. She reported:

Francisco R. Quijada and Gus Sofronia, both longtime business owners along Second Avenue, know how frustrating the construction of the new subway line can be. Both have watched their businesses suffer from the huge enclosures that have been built in front of their buildings. And both have asked customers to ignore the steady drilling and hammering that emanate from beneath their feet. But when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority decided on Tuesday to stop temporarily the blasts it had been conducting around East 72nd Street each afternoon to try to better contain the dust billowing up, the two men reacted very differently.

Mr. Quijada, 79, an interior designer who has had his studio on Second Avenue near 72nd Street for 45 years, welcomed a break from the thunderous booms. They rattle his studio, riddle his walls with cracks and send dust into his front window display like sand pouring down an hourglass, he said. When he looks outside after a blast, he said, he sees passers-by covered in dust. “It sounds like another bomb is coming,” he said. “Maybe for somebody in their 20s, it would be exciting for it to happen. We have lost a lot of business.”

Mr. Sofronia, owner of Cafe Greco on Second Avenue near 72nd Street for 25 years, also says that the booms have hurt his business. But he is angry that the Second Avenue project has slowed. He wants the authority to wrap up its work so he can start making money from customers riding the new line. “That’s just delaying the project; you can’t have construction without dust,” Mr. Sofronia said. “As a business owner, I don’t really care about dust. If people start nagging about everything, this is going to be done in 2030.”

That is, of course, the ongoing battle. When Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway is completed, the Upper East Side will be a far more accessible area, and property values and business will jump. I’ve often wondered, in fact, if investing in the area around Second Ave. now while prices are depressed would constitute a sound investment. As long as the MTA finishes Phase 1 somewhat on time, I’d think it is.

But on the other hand, people have to live within this construction zone for another five years. The MTA is building a subway through a densely populated urban area with decades or centuries of uncharted and ill-maintained infrastructure, and it’s no easy task to do so without disrupting every day life. Without adequately stable buildings, without thorough maps of the underground scene, the MTA is flying blind.

Ultimately, just finishing it would be the best thing for the Upper East Side. Unfortunately, though, even the best case scenario means five more years of construction, some more invasive than others. For now, the MTA must strike a balance between moving forward and placating neighbors who want a subway line but don’t want the headaches, dust and debris that comes with it. As the fun starts up again on December 5, that gives the agency just one more week to address the problems.

Over the past few years, as the MTA has showed off progress underneath Second Ave., authority officials have made it a point to downplay anything more than Phase 1 of the subway. Although the environmental study for a full-length Second Ave. Subway came out in 2004, funding for only a northern extension of the BMT line from 57th St. and Broadway to 96th St. and Second Ave. is in place, and the future of the remaining phases is hazy at best.

On the record, MTA officials have never spoken about the possibilities for future phases. When I interviewed Jay Walder last year, he talked about firming up Phase 1 funding commitments and looking for ways to reduce construction costs. On future phases, he hedged.

“If you look at the Second Ave. Subway piece, to their credit, the planners…are achieving a very usable segment of a railway so that when it opens in 2016, you will have something that will connect into the rest of the system.” Walder said to me. “If we don’t stop there, where do we go from here? The intent is that it goes south from there, and funding-available, that is exactly what everyone’s objective will be. We also have pieces of preexisting tunnel north so you may well have the opportunity to pick up both ends of that.”

Yesterday, though, a very faint glimmer of a Phase 2 future emerged when Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) toured the Second Ave. construction site. The federal government has been a very active funding partner for Phase 1. Their investment and pledge of $1.4 billion pushed the MTA to realize a subway line eight decades in the works, and without the federal dollars, the Second Ave. Subway would still just be a dream on paper.

Lately, though, with the feds on an austerity kick despite the need to create jobs, funding for the Second Ave. Subway had come under fire. The House had voted to take away $40 million funding, but after their tour on Tuesday, Mica and Maloney promised to restore those dollars. “The Second Avenue Subway is a great example of what can be done when we invest in our infrastructure, and I thank Chairman Mica for committing to help ensure that the federal government meets its responsibility to fund the subway’s first phase,” Maloney said in a statement.

Mica meanwhile was more expansive in his views. Noting how the Second Ave. Subway is a major infrastructure project with the ability to create a substantial number of jobs, Mica spoke of the future. “For the benefit of other major transportation and infrastructure projects like the Second Avenue Subway, and the stability needed to undertake these kinds of projects around the country, it is essential that Congress complete a six-year transportation bill as soon as possible,” he said.

Speaking with reporters after their tour, Mica stressed how he would lobby for continuous federal funding to maintain the pace of this project, and in those words, I can find that glimmer of hope for the future. If the feds can continue supporting this project, they will put pressure on New York to find the money to go forward. Phase 2 — the northern extension up Second Ave. to the IRT stop at 125th St. and Lexington — would ensure that those working on Phase 1 aren’t unemployed when the construction project ramps down, and the transportation benefits would be tremendous.

I’ve long held out hope for Phase 2 to start as Phase 1 winds down. As Chapter 3 of the FEIS explains, due to preexisting tunnels, the MTA would use cut-and-cover construction methods to build Phase 2. It would likely cost far less than Phase 1 and shouldn’t take nearly as long to finish. In a sense, it is likely to be the easiest segment of the Second Ave. Subway.

Still, I’m getting ahead of myself. The MTA has to make sure Phase 1 is set to finish on time and on budget before it can launch into Phase 2 planning. But I want to believe the project will keep going. I want to believe the MTA won’t cease construction entirely and then ramp it back up to build Phase 2. It’s going to take the perfect alignment of political stars and funding fates, but maybe, just maybe, this little subway 82 years in the making has legs that extend a bit further north than 96th St.

Late last week, MTA honchos and various elected officials gathered underground at 63rd St. to celebrate the end of tunneling for Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway. Adi, the tunnel boring machine, broke through to the existing tube just east of Third Ave., and it seems as though there is, after seven decades of starts and stops, no turning back. There will be a part of the Second Ave. Subway sometime this decade.

Despite the accolades and photo ops, though, the subway is a long way off. The MTA has billions to spend and years of construction work ahead. It has to construct numerous auxiliary buildings and three stations, and although the MTA thinks construction will wrap in December 2016, the feds still say construction could last until 2018. That’s a long time for a two-mile extension of a preexisting subway tunnel with a $4.5 billion price tag.

The TBM then provided Carolyn Maloney, the House representative from the Upper East Side, with the perfect opportunity to unveil her third annual report card for the project. After giving the subway project a B- in 2009, she graded it a B last year. This year, it gets another B. Said Maloney:

“The MTA finished digging all the tunnels for the Second Avenue Subway this week – a huge breakthrough for the project and for our mass transit system. The MTA should be congratulated for achieving that milestone five months ahead of schedule. The project continues to score high marks on merit, given that it will serve 213,000 riders on its first day of operation; high marks on economic benefit, since it is providing 16,000 construction jobs at a time of economic hardship; and good marks on communication with the public and on construction management, as more than half the contracts for the subway have been awarded.

“However, the project continues to have a significant, negative impact on the community, with the emergence of new environmental concerns, and the MTA needs to improve its planning, adherence to budget, completion of entrances and ancillary facilities, and progress toward completion. But most of all, the MTA needs to stick to its current completion target of December 2016. Overall, we are awarding the MTA a ‘B,’ buoyed by the completion of the subway tunnels, the economic benefits of the project, and significant progress in awarding contracts.”

As it has been in past years, much of the 2011 report card is fairly obvious. Maloney still loves the project’s merit and potential long-term economic benefits. She also applauded the MTA’s completion of the tunnel boring earlier than anticipated.

Yet, other concerns remain. In grading construction management a B-, she said, “Failure to do due diligence on a contractor at 72nd street has delayed demolition of the Falk buildings; problems with environmental mitigation have sent dust clouds onto the streets near 72nd Street; and problems with engineering of an entrance at 69th Street has residents concerned about possibly experiencing damage to their heating system and other utilities.”

Furthermore, she has called upon the MTA to improve planning (B-) and mitigation of construction impact (C-). Staying on budget gets a C+ when, in reality, it should probably be graded an F. After all, the MTA once thought Phase 1 would cost around $3.8 billion. But ultimately she seems to like the project and wants the MTA to devote enough resources toward its completion:

“The MTA has an ambitious construction schedule, and it needs to put its full attention to making sure that this project is moving forward with all deliberate speed. However, without a new Chair who is committed to complete the subway and without assurance that state funding will be forthcoming, this project may never be finished. The completion date for the project has been extended significantly over the years, but there were no further delays in 2011 or 2010 – a welcome development. Future delays would make this project more difficult and costly to complete. The MTA must take all steps necessary to ensure that it does not exceed its current project completion date.

Completion of the tunnels brings great hope that early problems are being resolved and that this project will stay within its current timetable and budget. There is a lot more work to be done, but there is also a growing sense that a Second Avenue Subway may soon be a reality.

One day, someone with study the MTA’s planning process for the Second Ave. Subway. We’ll find out why it costs so much and why it’s taking so long to complete. That isn’t Maloney’s report though. Hers is an effort to get the MTA to fix its process and its relationship with the neighborhood. It’s a admirable goal but one that only gets us halfway there.

On a chilly day in April of 2010 with skies grey and intermittent rain drops falling into a giant hole in the ground 70 feet below street level, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder gathered with local politicians to launch Adi, the giant tunnel-boring machine that would be responsible for creating the Second Ave. Subway tubes. Yesterday morning shortly before 11:30, Adi completed her second run, and as a broke through into the preexisting station cavern at 63rd St. slightly east of Third Avenue, the MTA could celebrate a major milestone in a project that has taken 80 years and may still last at least another five.

“At street level it can be hard to notice progress sometimes, but down here you can see the Second Avenue Subway becoming a reality right before your eyes,” Walder said. “The completion of tunneling is an enormous milestone and further proof that the Second Avenue Subway is for real this time.”

Those two themes — street-level impact and progress that is “for real this time” — have dominated the coverage of the Second Ave. Subway work. In fact, on Wednesday night a few hours before the TBM finished its run, Second Ave. business owners again called upon someone, anyone to provide them with aid during the disruptive construction. “This is our 9/11,” one of them said less than tactfully during a meeting of Community Board 8.

The progress for real though is what officials came to celebrate yesterday. The Second Ave. Subway has come to stand for the city’s inability to see big projects through, and the jury is in fact still out on this one. Originally planned for construction during the 1930s, SAS ran into the Great Depression, a World War, the rise of the automobile and an economic slump in the 1970s. Along the way, politicians such as Sheldon Silver tried to kill the project by demanding the MTA fund it in full from one end of Manhattan to the next before starting construction, and even now, the FTA believes the MTA won’t meet its planned December 2016 revenue date.

Still, politicians were effusive in their praise. “This is a remarkable — and very welcome — milestone,” City Council Member Dan Garodnick said. “From above, it’s difficult to appreciate everything that is happening to move this project forward. But while it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, things are moving, and we can’t wait to see the first train come down the line. For straphangers on the overcrowded Lexington line and businesses in the construction zone, this is a moment to celebrate. It’s a moment that brings us closer to transit relief and to the additional infrastructure that will aid our City for many decades to come.”

Adi, the TBM, begin this journey through the east tunnel in March. The 485-ton, 450-long machine used a 22-foot diameter cutterhead to mine 7789 linear feet of rock at an average depth of 70 feet. Now that the tunnels are dug out, workers will line it with concrete as part of the permanent tunnel structure. While yesterday was a major milestone for Phase 1, though, the MTA has a long way to go. Stations must be built, ventilation shafts dug, money apportioned and future phases to consider.

Ultimately, though, SAS is keeping construction workers on the job, and as the MTA looks ahead to some debt-filled years, I have to hope that the parts of the SAS we’ll see in my lifetime don’t just involve a northern extension of the Q train. One day, the T should arrive.

“This milestone is a tribute to the skilled contractors and trades people who work tirelessly every day to solve the complex engineering challenges and build the Second Avenue Subway in the most dense construction environment in the country,” Denise Richardson, managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York, said. “With this milestone, New York comes one step closer to completing a vision of the Second Avenue Subway first planned in the 1920’s. Let’s make sure we continue to have the vision and fortitude to continue to build the transportation network that is so critical to New York’s economy and basic mobility.”

For more on this milestone, check out Ben Heckscher’s post at The Launch Box. He snapped some great photographs of the event, and there’s a video as well that I’ve embedded after the jump. (more…)

I took the Q back from Manhattan to Brooklyn in the middle of the afternoon yesterday. Because it was an off-peak train and the MTA is doing some work north of 57th St., the Q train turned around at 57th St. I boarded a train on the downtown express tracks, and what happened next was something sort of silly.

After 57th St., the Q these days stops at 49th St. to make up for the lost W train. I had thought it made that stop only if it were running into and from Astoria, but apparently, I was wrong. After 57th St., we switched from the downtown express tracks to the downtown local track in order to stop at 47th St. We proceeded along the local track from 49th to Times Square, and after Times Square, we switched back to the express tracks before 34th St. to continue downtown.

Furthermore, before leaving 57th St., we had to wait for an N train to clear in front of us, and we moved in front of an R train, thus holding up another full train at 57th St. At each switch, the train crawled, and by the time we left 34th St., we had probably lost a minute or so of travel time. It struck me as operations planning at its worst when the Q just could have skipped 49th St. while avoiding two switches and creating delays.

In the grand scheme of the MTA, this is a Little Thing. It’s impact on people individually is rather negligible, but it’s an inefficiency. Eventually it might matter.

Now, frequently when I talk about the Second Ave. Subway, readers want to know how the MTA will re-route the BMT Broadway Line. The current plans, developed before we lost the W train, called for the Q to run north from 57th St. to 63rd and Lexington and then up Second Ave. Today, we no longer have the W train, and it’s unclear what the MTA will do. They can’t cut service to Astoria, but they’ll need to run trains to the Upper East Side. It’s a decision that’s at least five years away, but it’s a popular topic nonetheless.

In my opinion, because of the switch, the train that runs up Second Ave. should be an express. The express tracks run north of 57th St. directly to the 63rd and Lexington line, and there’s no reason to slow down anyone’s trip because of the need to switch. The MTA will have to revive some sort of local service to Astoria by then as well. The ideal routing then would include a Q train from Brooklyn to 96th and Second via the Broadway express, the N from Brooklyn to Astoria also via the express, another local — call it the W — to Astoria via the Broadway local and the current R train service.

This is, of course, planning very far ahead, but in the interim, the MTA should eliminate the double switch the off-peak Q makes in the span of three station stops. It’s just unnecessary.

It will be a long, long time before the robin’s egg blue T train makes it way down Second Ave. In fact, the T isn’t set to begin service until Phase 3 extends the subway route to Houston St., and the Q will run north of 57th St. when Phase 1 is completed. That’s not, however, stopping the MTA from cashing in.

Last August, I wrote about the T train-themed merchandise for sale at the Transit Museum gift shop, and this week, Christine Haughney reports that the Second Ave. Subway stuff is selling like hot cakes.

According to the Transit Museum, out of 23 subway lines, the T is the 10th best seller. Of course, the famous A train, immortalized by Billy Strayhorn, is the top seller, but T teddy bears, mouse pads and t-shirts beat out such popular routes as the 2, B and D trains. Some designers, though, as Haughney reports, aren’t impressed:

the authority has alienated some designers more comfortable decorating the beige and taupe living rooms of the Upper East Side. Ms. Hilton said that she rarely had clients request blue or teal. One client, a 10-year-old girl, has asked that her bedroom be decorated in baby blue and her bathroom in turquoise. “In my world, it’s not a popular color,” she said. “But kids are asking for these colors.”

It happens that teal has been identified by the fashion world as color of the year. “It has a very upscale connotation,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, which surveys fashion designers each year and determines the latest color. “People with more discriminating tastes tend to choose that as a favorite color.”

John Barman, a prominent designer on the Upper East Side, echoed Ms. Hilton’s concerns about having a turquoise train line in beige territory. He hopes the city never pairs the turquoise T line with its orange lines, because that would produce a garish Howard Johnson effect. “It’s more of a Florida color,” he said delicately.

Amusingly — or sadly — enough, the MTA is cashing in on the T train when there’s no guarantee we’ll even see the T train. Optimistically, Phase 3 of the Second Ave. Subway won’t be around until at least 2030, and right now, the dollars for more than just Phase 1 aren’t there. But get your T train shirts while you still can. It might just be a collector’s item.

While the MTA is realizing dollars from a dream, others are making real money carting out Second Ave. dirt and debris. WNYC’s Ilya Maritz followed the rubble from underneath Second Ave. to various locations around the city. Some of the rock has gone to St. Peter’s College which is using it to build a dorm while much of is going toward creating the Ferry Point Golf Course in the Bronx as well. Ultimately, SAS construction has produced around 5000 tons of debris per day, but contracts have sold only around 1000-2000 tons daily for approximately $11 per ton. All in all, it’s not a bad day’s work.