Second Avenue Subway

Progress along Second Ave. has increased by leaps and bounds this year as the MTA switched on the new subway’s tunnel boring machine and finally started digging out the tubes. Yet, as far as project management has gone, the Upper East Side’s politicians see only incremental improvement. After handing out a B- last year, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Assemblyman Micah Kellner, and Councilwoman Jessica Lappin have given the Second Ave. Subway a B in their second annual report card.

“Real progress has been made on the Second Avenue Subway this year – with the subway’s tunnel boring machine literally moving closer to the finish line with each passing hour,” Maloney said on Saturday. “This is a great project and it’s been a vital source of good-paying jobs in the worst economic environment we’ve seen since the Great Depression. But today, we’re serving notice that we’re keeping an eye on the MTA, and we’re going to keep pushing to make sure this project keeps moving forward, with no further delays. The MTA must complete the Second Avenue Subway by its current 2016 deadline. We cannot afford to have it take any longer.”

Maloney’s report both praises and criticizes the MTA. As she has in the past, the House representative highlights the economic impact of the jobs the Second Ave. subway construction has brought to New York City. “The project is employing thousands of workers at a time when the construction industry is experiencing a sharp downturn, making the Second Avenue Subway an ideal stimulus project,” the report says. “In fact, SAS qualified for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and received $78,870,000.”

Of concern to Maloney are the various completion dates. As I reported back in July of 2009, the Federal Transportation Authority fears that the Second Ave. Subway will wrap in 2018 and cost $5.7 billion while the MTA’s official documents still predict revenue service in late 2016. “The construction is taking a toll on local businesses and residents,” Councilman Dan Garodnick said, “and the longer it lasts, the greater that impact will be — which is why this project must be completed without any further delay.”

Despite the FTA’s initial concerns, the report card itself notes that the MTA has ironed out some early kinks in the process. Even though the FTA’s assessment hovers over the project, there have not, the report said, “been significant changes in cost or timetable since then.”

In the end, Maloney’s biggest fears remain focused around the project’s funding and its future as New York state’s economy enters uncertain times and the threat of a new governor looms. “Finally, while the federal government has already contributed $752.2 of its $1.3 billion commitment (with another $197 million expected for FY2011, which would bring the federal total to roughly $950 million), and the State has allocated more than $1.5 billion to the project, there is still some concern about the State’s ability to provide the funding during this time of fiscal crisis,” the report says. “It is encouraging to know that the current MTA Chair appears to be committed to completing the capital projects that are currently underway, but there will be a change in the Governor’s office in January, introducing an element of uncertainty.”

After the jump, I’ve posted the report card in its 3000-word entirety. As you’ll see, community relations and overall planning remain a concern of the politicians, and the authority loses significant points for its inability to keep the project on time and on budget.

As Second Ave. residents and business owners continue to bemoan and debate the impact of the ongoing construction, work underneath the avenue is continuing at a brisk pace. The MTA tells me that on Wednesday, Adi, the tunnel boring machine digging out the south tunnel, bore through a record-setting 102 feet. At the end of the day on Wednesday, the TBM had mined 2175 feet and was approaching 83rd St., nearly 10 blocks south of the launch block and 20 blocks north of its final destination.

Lately, the MTA’s pace has been far brisker than the 60 feet per-day average the contractors had anticipated, and those familiar with Manhattan’s geology tell me that this brisk pace is, unfortunately, unsustainable. The rock in the East 80s is far sturdier than the rock in the East 70s, and the TBM’s pace will probably slow to a mark closer to that average pace. Still, for a project slowed by, well, just about everything, this fast mining work is a bright spot of good news.

As the Second Ave. Subway chugs ahead late and over budget, the MTA Inspector General says that work slower and more expensive than anticipated on the utilities underneath the avenue is to blame for the project’s rising costs, The New York Times reported this morning. In a letter to Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, MTAIG Barry Kluger said that the utilities relocation work has taken six months longer than expected and will cost $130 million higher than initial estimates.

While Kluger’s report isn’t available publicly, The Times says the Manhattan BP had asked the Inspector General’s Office to explore the reasons behind the slow pace of progress on the massive construction project. Michael Grynbaum has more:

The inspector general, Barry L. Kluger, who admitted “frustration” over the project’s progress, also found that the transportation authority’s troubles in awarding contracts have added $120 million to the bill and extended its completion date by a full year.

Mr. Kluger’s findings offer a rare glimpse at the item-by-item causes for the enormous financial woes plaguing the project. Federal officials now believe the first phase of the subway line will cost about $4.98 billion, nearly $1 billion more than the original estimate in 2007, when federal financing was secured for the project.

Federal officials now estimate the first phase of work will be completed in February 2018, while transportation authority officials have put the date at no later than July 2017. The transportation authority has acknowledged the project is over budget, but its planners say the ultimate cost for this phase will be around $4.45 billion.

The MTA has been toeing the 2016/2017 party line for nearly a year now despite the feds’ insistence than Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway — an extension of the Q line from 57th and Broadway to 2nd Ave. and 96th St. — won’t be ready for revenue service until 2018 at the earliest. Phases 2 and beyond remain in doubt.

For his part, Stringer was critical of the way the MTA has overseen this project. “What due diligence didn’t happen that we are having these cost overruns?” he said to The Times. “There is a sophistication needed for managing a capital program of this magnitude that is lacking…“The MTA must take a more realistic approach to managing expectations.” The authority hasn’t yet offered up much in the way of an explanation for the problems their capital programs have faced, but Kluger is working on a report that should see the light of day before 2010 is out.

Meanwhile, federal officials aren’t happy with the pace of work either. As Grynbaum notes, FTA officials have warned the MTA that they won’t spend “a single penny” to cover rising costs or delays. As always, the fate of even Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway remains unknown.

As above-ground complaints about the Second Ave. Subway are making headlines, underneath the avenue, progress on the tunnel is continuing apace. When we last checked in on Adi, the TBM drilling out the subway tubes, it had reached only 90th St. and was drilling an average of just 14 feet a day. In August, however, the MTA was able to pick up the pace.

Late last week, DNA Info reported that the TBM had drilled through 1760 feet of rock in August and had nearly reached the 2000-foot mark. Today, the MTA confirmed that the machine has reached 1928 feet. Meanwhile, Ben Heckscher at The Launch Box notes that the TBM is moving faster than expected. Last week on one day, for instance, the TBM mined 92.74 feet, and yesterday, the machine dug out 74 feet, ell above estimates of 50-60 feet per day. Adi is now somewhere underneath 84th St., approximately a mile away from its ultimate goal of 65th St.

In other Second Ave. Subway TBM news, Wired magazine went underground this week with a slideshow feature on the tortured 75-year history of the new subway line and the technology behind the tunnel boring machine. Since the photographer took his shots when the media took a trip in the launch box, the photos are similar to the ones I presented in May, but with one amusing difference: I accidentally appear in one of Wired’s photos.

This auxiliary building for the Second Ave. Subway at 72nd St. is drawing complaints from the neighborhood.

Building a new subway line in age with stringent requirements about station and tunnel security and accessibility is a trying affair. No matter how involved the affected community is with the project, someone is bound to find something they don’t like. For the MTA along Second Ave., they’ve faced their fair share of complaints as Upper East Siders have bemoaned entrances at 96th St. and 72nd St. as well as ventilation structures up and down the avenue. Yet again, the auxiliary structures are coming under fire.

While some residents have sued the MTA over updated designs to these structures, others believe the MTA has missed an opportunity to beautify and develop the above-ground area on top of the Second Ave. Subway. Had the Authority better designed the auxiliary structure, the Upper East Side could have seen more affordable housing and nicer buildings, says Richard Bass, a lawyer representing one Second Ave. co-op in discussions with the MTA.

In the Real Estate section in today’s Times, Terry Pristin goes in depth on this issue. Did the MTA, she asks, adequately integrate these buildings into the neighborhood? Few seem to think so, and many, she writes, view these buildings as “a missed opportunity or an unwelcome industrial intrusion into a residential neighborhood, or both.” Bass suggested that the MTA could have taken advantage of New York’s air rights laws to build above their auxiliar structures, but the Authority has instead chosen an austere look.

The agency, reticent to speak because of the pending lawsuits, answered some questions about the above-ground decisions. Pristin reports:

Kevin Ortiz, an M.T.A. spokesman, said by e-mail that the agency had worked with developers on both the 97th Street site, where the Century Lumber Corporation once stood, and on 72nd Street, the longtime home of Falk Drug and Surgical Supplies. Plans for 72nd Street, where the site measures 75 feet by 75 feet, were scuttled because “in order for a development to work, additional property would have had to be acquired, which we couldn’t justify as a transportation use,” he said.

On 97th Street, “M.T.A. Real Estate worked very long and hard to make it work, but in the end the developer lost interest,” he said.

In a subsequent e-mail, Aaron Donovan, another M.T.A. spokesman, said the developers that the agency had consulted owned the sites. Mr. Donovan said the agency had not issued requests for proposals from developers “because we didn’t own the properties,” which were acquired through eminent domain. According to the M.T.A., only the 97th Street site, which measures 100 feet by 125 feet, is large enough to accommodate a residential development. The M.T.A. also would not say why it did not consult a second developer for that site.

In addition to the visual elements and seemingly missed opportunities to allow for residential development, other urban land-use experts have questioned whether the MTA is maximizing its opportunities while minimizing costs. The Authority hasn’t successfully worked with real estate developers on plans that would help defray costs as new subway construction raises land values and rents. The same can be said of the lack of a station stop at 41st St. and 10th Ave. along the 7 extension. “The MTA does not think of its real estate as either an investment opportunity or a development opportunity,” Julia Vitullo-Martin of the RAP said to The Times. While a bit hyperbolic, the MTA’s real estate planning has often worked against and not with the neighborhoods serviced by new subway routes.

Not all is lost however along Second Ave. The auxiliary structures may be monolithic, and they might not appear to fit the character of the neighborhood, as the MTA claimed they would in the SAS Environmental Impact Statements. Civitas, the Upper East Side civic group, has long questioned the aesthetic impact these buildings will have, and the MTA defends that on grounds of lower maintenance costs. But Civitas was succcessful in convincing the MTA to include 360 square feet of real estate at 69th St. and 240 at 72nd St., says Pristin. At least the avenue won’t face too many windowless ventilation walls as some side streets in Midtown do.

It’s no easy task to build subways through neighborhoods that are replete with 80- and 90-year-old buildings, and the MTA seems to be learning this the hard way. One day, in a decade, we’ll view these structures with the same disregard with give every MTA substation, but those who live next to them might see them as lost opportunities to better a neighborhood soon to enjoy the benefits of a subway line running through it.

When Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway opens in 2012 2016 2018, the turquoise T won’t be a part of the subway system quite yet. The first part will simply extend the Q line north from 57th St. and Broadway underneath Central Park to the F stop at 63rd St. and then up to 96th St. and Second Ave. In fact, Phase 2, an extension from 96th to 125th Sts. won’t see the birth of the T either. Instead, the new train bullet will make its debut when — or is that if? — the MTA completes the full four phases of Second Ave. Subway, and the train reaches its way down to Hanover Square.

That won’t, however, stop the MTA from cashing in on the new train. Earlier this morning, the Transit Museum posted via Twitter an image of its latest and greatest addition to the subway bullet t-shirt line. That newcomer is none other than the turquoise T with the words “2nd Av Local” underneath. Phases 2-4 may not be up for funding yet, but no one ever said New Yorkers weren’t ambitious. “Wear it,” the museum said, “before you ride it.”

The image of the t-shirt atop the post comes via the Transit Museum. The shirts are available for sale right here.

Nearly three and a half months ago, local politicians and MTA officials came together in the giant pit underneath Second Ave. to celebrate the launch of Adi, the tunnel boring machine for the Second Ave. Subway. While symbolic, the launch was a momentous sign of progress for a project eight decades in the planning and eight decades delayed. Although the current iteration of the Second Ave. Subway had originally been slated for a 2012 opening, with the launch of the TBM, the MTA felt confident it would be ready by the end of 2016.

As with many things concerning the MTA’s capital construction program, though, the best laid plans of mice and men always seem to go awry. Earlier this month, the TBM had gone only 300 feet, far less than the estimated 40-60 feet per day, and officials assured me that the tunnel boring machine was simply going through some growing pains. It would be pick up the pace soon, they said. That reality has not come to pass quite yet.

Ten days ago, the MTA ran into a speed bump when a probe drill surfaced on Second Avenue, just a few away from active gas lines. At that point, the MTA had to investigate the incident, but spokesman Kevin Ortiz said the timeframe would remain the same. “We don’t anticipate this to have an impact on completing of the first run of the TBM before the end of the year,” he told me.

Today, this news is the same, and yet again, MTA officials are promising that the grass is greener on the other side, that the sun will come out tomorrow, and that a few more cliches are applicable here. As the Daily News reports, the TBM is averaging just 14 feet per day due to various mechanical issues, and amNY says the drill has reached only 90th Street.”We have yet to achieve the productivity I was hoping,”Michael Horodniceanu, head of capital construction, said. “We were plagued by a lot of technical problems.”

Pete Donohue says that the machine’s problems have included a broken driveshaft as well as issues with various “electronic components and hydraulics systems.” While Horodniceanu says the problems are in the process of getting resolved and that TBMs often face unforeseen obstacles in the first few months, the MTA’s tale documents tell the tale of another delay. The following chart is from this week’s Transit Committee deck and shows the TBM timeline:

As is plainly obvious, the timeline for the TBM work has already slipped by six months. It is not expected to wrap now until the end of 2011. This is but another delay in the ongoing saga of the Second Ave. Subway.

Publicly, the MTA claims this new TBM timeframe won’t impact the completion date of Phase 1 of the SAS, but even that late 2016 date is in doubt. Although transit officials haven’t gone on record saying so, the agency appears to be heeding the FTA’s timeline. The feds think a mid-2018 completion date is far more realistic. Sitting here today in 2010, I wouldn’t bet on the 2018 with my SAS Futures Fund either.

It’s not easy to build a subway through a densely populated part of town when utilities aren’t mapped and American companies don’t possess the engineering expertise. Still, as the Second Ave. Subway slowly moves toward completion, the timeline is stretched out further and further into the future. Because of the federal investment, Phase 1 will see the light of day, but Phases 2-4 are in doubt. If they make it off the paper, we won’t see the full line until the late 2020s at the earliest, and the Second Ave. Subway continues to be the city’s greatest unrealized promise.

As the MTA’s operations budget sloughs through one of its worst crisis of in New York history, the capital budget is, if not alive and well, still ticking. With a large federal contribution behind it, the Second Ave. Subway work is chugging along, and despite a drill mishap last week that I’ll cover later today, work will be completed by some time in the future.

Even if Phase 1 of the Second Ave. Subway isn’t ready for revenue service until 2018, as the Feds fear, it’s never too early to pimp the features that will be found on the new line’s three new stations. In a piece last week that got buried during the July 4th weekend, that’s exactly what the New York Post did. Reporter Joseph Goldstein spoke with the MTA about the myriad upgrades to the riding experience the Second Ave. Subway will provide, and it sounds as though the MTA is trying to show off what they could do to the city’s 106-year-old transit system with the right amount of money.

Some of the features discussed in the article have been a long time coming. For instance, the MTA unveiled plans to enclose the stations in plexiglass back in 2007. This innovation — found in modern systems and airport tram systems throughout the globe — allows for better temperature control of the stations, prevents people from falling into the tracks and ensures that track-fire-causing garbage stays out of where it isn’t supposed to be.

Some of the other innovations aren’t really innovations at all. Goldstein tells us that a sound engineering company is working to build a better public address system, and train arrival boards will be de rigueur at all of the new stations. It’s hard to get that excited about something New York should have had 15 years ago. The authority will also turn away from its sometimes drab tiling scheme to duplicate South Ferry’s bright whiteness. The walls, says The Post, will be “draped with large, white tiles that can be unhooked for cleaning and replacement.” The MTA will also be installing the wiring need for underground cell and Internet service.

The most interesting parts of Goldstein’s article concern the MTA’s sound efforts. In addition to the new PA system, “sound-absorbing fiberglass along the ceiling will reduce reverberations” while “rubber blocks wedged under train tracks will dampen the rumbling.” With the threat of music being piped in, commutes could become downright melodious.

Of course, the most cynical of New Yorkers will just imagine that these things will break and grow grimy. Plexiglass walls will be stained with fingerprints, soda, coffee and who knows what else before the first week of operations is up. The white tiling, while easy to clean, will turn grey with New York City dirt. The PA system will break just as those on the R160s have. Such are the way of things underground. We can’t expect the subway of tomorrow as we still wait for the subway of yesterday throughout the system.

Still, the MTA plows ahead. They haven’t yet, though, found a flooring that repels blacked gum, but that too might come at Second Ave. “We’re looking at surfaces that will be easier to clean the gum off of,” MTA Capital Construction head Michael Horodniceanu said. “They haven’t invented a surface yet that it won’t stick to.”