The launch of congestion pricing has put the MTA’s plan to stretch the Second Avenue Subway from the Higher East Facet to Harlem one cease nearer to its remaining vacation spot.
Days earlier than the Jan. 5 begin of the vehicle-tolling initiative that’s appeared to as a significant supply of funding for the $7.1 billion growth challenge, the MTA issued a request for proposals from companies that may design, engineer and construct the extension of the Q line between 96th and a hundred and twenty fifth streets.
“The Second Avenue Subway is one of the most important mass transit projects in the nation and today it’s driving forward, thanks to congestion pricing,” Jamie Torres-Springer, president of the MTA’s development division, informed THE CITY in an announcement. “MTA Construction & Development is delivering megaprojects like this one better, faster and cheaper than ever before and we’re ready to maximize the impact of every penny we use to fund our work.”
East Harlem residents who rely closely on buses to commute or stroll lengthy blocks to the Lexington Avenue subway line greeted with renewed optimism the prospect of three new stations ultimately being constructed at 106th, 116th and a hundred and twenty fifth streets.
“People are in a tough spot if they want to commute by car with the new tolls,” Malasia Apparicio, 30, mentioned subsequent to a M15 bus cease. “But if the goal is to extend the subway line, then that’s much, much more of a convenience to those of us who live here.”
As he waited for a southbound M15 at Second Avenue and a hundred and fifteenth Avenue, Luis Martinez, 47, mentioned he would gladly commerce the complications that accompany years of development for sooner commutes and never having to journey alongside the Lexington Avenue line, which has the best ridership within the subway system.
Luis Martinez waits for an M15 bus on Second Avenue in East Harlem, Jan. 9, 2025. Credit score: Jose Martinez/THE CITY
“The construction is going to be a little bit of a headache, but when they finish, you know everyone will be happy,” Martinez mentioned. “For the older folks, for the disabled, a subway would really make a difference.”
The late December solicitation for engineering companies and in addition to Jan. 8 challenge web site excursions at one hundred and twentieth Avenue and Second Avenue mark vital steps ahead for the challenge, which was slowed by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s June pause on congestion pricing. The MTA final January awarded the primary contract for the subway extension, a $182 million settlement to relocate underground utilities forward of development on the deliberate 106th Avenue station.
To maintain utility relocation work transferring alongside, Hochul patched collectively $54 million in state funds in July earlier than she reversed course once more in November, clearing the way in which for congestion pricing.
The income that’s anticipated to be generated from tolling autos getting into Manhattan on or south of sixtieth Avenue permits the transit company to fulfill funding necessities to match a $3.4 billion grant the Biden administration awarded in November 2023.
Over, Beneath, Round and By way of
In keeping with MTA paperwork, proposals on tunneling and structural shell work are due by March 5 and may solely be accepted from the 2 joint-venture companies pre-qualified by MTA Building and Growth to bid on the challenge. A contract for roughly 4 years is anticipated to be awarded by the third quarter of this yr.
As a part of the work, an unused Nineteen Seventies-era Second Avenue tunnel that already stretches from south of a hundred and fifteenth Avenue to one hundred and twentieth Avenue can be rehabilitated, with the northern finish of the present tunnel at Second Avenue to be demolished.
As well as, a boring machine will carve out tunnels going from Second Avenue and one hundred and twentieth Avenue to a degree west of Malcolm X Boulevard and a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue. A cavern can be carved out for a a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue Q line station — with connections to the present a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue stops on the 4, 5, 6 traces and Metro-North.
“This is what we have been waiting for — you can’t let contracts if you don’t have the money,” mentioned Lisa Daglian, govt director of the Everlasting Residents Advisory Committee to the MTA. “Now that the money is starting to come in, you can let the contract.”
However the MTA nonetheless wants to complete buying properties which are within the path of the road extension, whose federal environmental evaluation was accomplished in 2018. That examine estimated the challenge’s results on air high quality, open house, security and safety, amongst different components.
The MTA launched renderings of the Second Avenue Subway extension to a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue. Credit score: Rendering through MTA
A spokesperson for the transit company informed THE CITY that seven properties wanted for the 106th Avenue station are nonetheless not owned by the MTA, together with 10 close to the 116th Avenue cease. Alongside a hundred and twenty fifth Avenue, the MTA has accomplished the acquisition of websites wanted for the road’s proposed northern terminal.
The primary leg of the Second Avenue line opened on New Yr’s Day 2017, with three stations at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets and a connection to the F line’s Lexington Avenue-63rd Avenue cease.
This new second part of the Second Avenue Subway is the signature challenge of the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital program. The greater than $50 billion, five-year plan to keep up and broaden the transit system was dealing with a large funding hole till congestion pricing was applied after years of effort.
East Harlemites mentioned they’re hopeful that the lengthy look ahead to a subway line will in the end be price it for a neighborhood whose elevated line alongside Second Avenue was demolished in 1942.
“Now they can pay for it, so eventually, they’ll get it done,” mentioned Fred Latte, a lifelong resident. “The Lexington Avenue train is packed, you got school kids on the buses and they’re all packed. So another line would be good for the neighborhood.”
Associated
