April 2, 2009

Here are a few notes from the Community Board 8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force meeting that was held on Monday, March 23rd:

• The MTA announced (at the meeting) that Contract 2A has been awarded to a joint venture between E. E. Cruz & Company, Inc. and the Tully Construction Co, Inc. The bid award amount was approx. $325 million. Contract 2A covers heavy civil and site work in and around the 96th Street station. Also included in this contract is the excavation work required to connect the new station at 96th Street to the existing 2nd Avenue subway tunnel just north of 99th Street.
  

An Update -- 5/31/09:
Apparently the MTA announced the award of Second Avenue Subway Contract 2A (referenced by the MTA as Contract C-26005) prematurely at the Community Board 8 meeting on March 23rd.

According the MTA's web site, this contract wasn't officially awarded until 5/28/09. The award amount was $303,863,700.

• Contract 5A has now been put out to bid. This contract includes excavation and utility relocation work for the 86th street station.
  

• The contractors (S3 Tunnel Constructors) have applied for a blasting permit from the New York City Fire Department and the Department of Environmental Protection. A limited amount of very controlled blasting will be required in and around the launch box to remove bedrock at the work site.
  

• At the moment there are three (3) Secant Wall drilling machines and two (2) Slurry Wall excavators working at the site. This suggests to me that they are pushing the construction of the TBM launch box along much faster now.

• S3 Tunnel Constructors gave the follow rough timeline for the next few months: For the next 4 months they will be constructing slurry and secant walls on the east side of the launch box. Then they will spend 1-2 months decking over the east half of the launch box, and then 4-5 months excavating the site (under the road decking) to a depth of about 75 feet.

Here's a copy of the PowerPoint presentations that were made by
S3 Tunnel Constructors and the MTA at the meeting:
Update on Construction & Schedule - 3/23/09

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On Tuesday, March 31st, the MTA Transit Museum hosted a special lecture "The Second Avenue Subway Architecture and History" at Grand Central Terminal, on the north east balcony.

Three excellent presentations were given, by William Wheeler, Director of Special project Development & Planning, MTA New York City Transit, William Goodrich, Program Executive and Sr Vice President, MTA Capital Construction, and Judith Kunoff Chief Architect, MTA New York City Transit.

Here are a few notes that I took away from these presentations:

• Phase I of the Second Avenue Subway project calls for the construction of 12,000 linear feet of 22' diameter tunnel. (between 92nd street and 63rd street.)

• Delivery of the Tunnel Boring Machine (to the launch box site) is expect to start in the fall of 2009. The machine will arrive unassembled, on 30 flat bed trucks, and then it will be assembled on-site over a 2 month period. Drilling of the first bore is expect to start early in 2010.

• The future Second Avenue Subway Line end-to-end (125th Street to Hanover Square, with 14 intermediate stops) will offer a faster ride than the Lexington Avenue number 4 express line (125th street to Bowling Green, with 7 intermediate stops) according to the MTA. This is because the new 2nd Avenue line will be engineered to 21st standards. The faster ride will also be made possible be the simple fact that the line will be much straighter. (i.e. no sharp turns, like the Lex takes at Grand Central Station.)

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Here's a listing of the recent additions to the right-hand
column of The Launch Box:


Under MTA Links
A new sub-section called "Procurement Info" with details of contracts that have been advertised and/or awarded by the MTA:

Contract 5A [C-26013] - IFB Notice - 86th Street Station Excavation,Utility Relocation and Road Decking - 3/5/09

Contract 2A [C-26005] -RFP Notice - 96th Street Station, Heavy Civil, Structural and Utility Relocation - 3/7/08

Contract 1 [C-26002]
Bid Award - Launch Box, Tunnels, and Shafts at 69th and 72nd - 1/18/07 - $337,025,000
IFB Notice - Launch Box, Tunnels, and Shafts at 69th and 72nd - 10/20/06


Under Second Avenue Business Association (SABA)
The Official SABA Web site


Under Current 2nd Avenue Subway Related Legislation:
A link to New York State Assembly Bill A3949,
"A bill to create real property tax abatement for certain commercial properties located within the Second Avenue Subway project", and the corresponding NYS Senate Bill, S1393.


Under Glossary:
Deep foundation


A new posting, with pictures, will follow shortly...