Station, Superstructure and Steam. . . Rising

Rehabilitation of the existing Lexington Ave / 63rd Street Station has begun.

This project, which is referenced by the MTA as Contract C-26006, was awarded to Judlau Contracting Inc. in mid-January. The award amount for the contract was $176,450,000.

An early indication that the work is, in fact, underway can be seen on 3rd Avenue (yes, Third Avenue) in the photo below.


4/22/11
63rd & 3rd Avenue, NE corner - looking N

This small structure was built a few weeks ago. It sits atop a section of the station that was built in the 1980s but that continued to remain unused for over three decades.

The MTA took care when they designed this structure. The colors that were chosen closely match the buildings in the area, and the roof is removable so that the contractor can easily lower material from the street into the hole below without causing much interruption at street level.



Artists' Rendering of Planned Entrance No. 3
Lexington Ave / 63rd Street Station
6/26/10

When the rehabilitation of the station is completed in 2014, a new station entrance will be installed at this location. The entrance will most likely look something like the artists' rendering shown above.



4/22/11
3rd Avenue, just north of 63rd Street - looking S

When I walked by this location to take pictures on Friday April 22nd, I overheard a woman ask her son, "What... is that?" The son, who must have been about 9 years old, knew exactly what it was. He said, "It's for the new train."

They paused for a moment to read the sign on the door, and then moved along.



4/22/11

A close-up shot of the sign that was posted on the door of the structure.

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The Lexington Avenue / 63rd Street subway station, which was originally opened in 1989, consists of four tracks today. However, only two of the tracks are currently in revenue service.

The two subway tracks that are not in revenue service -- behind the existing orange wall (shown below) -- were included as part of the original design for this station back in the 1970s. These tracks, which were built for the Second Avenue subway years ago, are currently being used exclusively for the storage of trains.



4/22/11
Lexington Ave/ 63rd Street station

In this image, you can see that the contractor has started to remove some of the existing false ceiling in the station.



4/22/11
Lexington Ave/ 63rd Street station

Here, the contractor has built a temporary (blue) construction wall. I would guess they have done this so that they can start removing the existing brick wall the separates the two tracks on each level.

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Now, returning to street level --


4/22/11
73rd Street, SW corner - looking SE

Just south of 73rd Street, I came across a crew that was in the process of constructing the superstructure for the MTA's planned Muck Conveyance System.

This system, which was presented by the MTA at the last meeting of the Community Board 8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force, in theory will lessen the environmental impact (i.e. noise and dust) that this project is having on the neighborhood.




This is a rendering of the planned Muck Conveyance System.



4/22/11
btw. 72nd & 73rd Streets - looking N

A pair of workers can be seen here working to connect a section of steel superstructure.



4/22/11



4/22/11

It's clear from these pictures that machines cannot do all the necessary work.



4/22/11

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4/22/11
69th Street, SW corner - looking W

On 69th Street I came across this odd looking piece of mining equipment that appears to be a rock drill. Most likely it will be used during the construction of the 72nd Street station cavern.

The machine was manufactured by the firm Oldenberg Cannon.



4/22/11

As you can see, this machine comes without a steering wheel. It is controlled instead by levers that move a large number of hydraulic valves.

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4/22/11
btw. 84th & 83rd streets - looking S

Up in the 80s, I came across workers from the contractor J. D'Annunzio & Sons who were laying down some fresh asphalt.



4/22/11
84th Street - looking S

Another view of the work site in the 80s, where the contractor is still working to relocate utilities. The most recent schedule that I have seen says that this contractor will be wrapping up his work at this site in September 2011.



4/22/11
btw. 83rd & 84 streets - looking N



4/22/11
just south of 86th Street - looking W

A view of two pieces of construction equipment that were parked near Schaller & Weber.



4/22/11
87th Street - looking S

More fresh asphalt (my lucky day!).



4/22/11
87th Street - looking S

Notice the steam rising from the layer of freshly laid asphalt. The asphalt here was probably about 300 degrees (F) when was it was dumped from the truck.



4/22/11
92nd Street, SE corner - looking E

This unremarkable image shows the site where the ground freezing plant was, until a few weeks ago, previously set up on 92nd Street .



4/22/11
btw. 92nd & 93rd Streets

The workers above are packing up a set of core samples. (Click on the image to zoom in for a closer view.)



4/22/11
95th Street

Yet another image of the maze of utility lines that exists under Second Avenue.


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Last Reported Location of the
Tunnel Boring Machine

just north of 87th Street
as of 4/30/11

TBM Run No. 2 (the east tunnel)
Tunnel length: 7,789 linear feet (LF)
Start: just south of 92nd Street
End: 63rd St / Lexington Station
1,116 LF mined as of 4/30/11
6,673 LF to run

April TBM Mining Data:
Distance mined: 885.76 LF
TBM mining days: 21
Avg. distance per day: 42.18 LF


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Second Avenue Subway
Occupying the Emergent Underground Commons
By Stephen Y. Huang
Masters in Architecture Thesis
Harvard University Graduate School of Design


For those readers who just can't read enough about the Second Avenue subway... here's a link to a Master's Thesis on the topic.

The thesis, which is 262 pages in length, provides the reader with an interesting collection of images, charts, graphs, and diagrams that are all, in various ways, related to the Second Avenue subway project.

Update 5/3/11:
Late today the author decided to remove his thesis on the Second Avenue Subway from the issuu.com web site for reasons that I cannot explain. We can only hope that he has a change of heart at some stage.


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

Construction Update and Muck Conveyance System, April 4, 2011
Presentation to CB8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force
MTA Capital Construction
4/4/11

Muck Conveyance System - 69th and 72nd Street Shafts
Presentation to CB8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force
MTA Capital Construction
4/4/11

Full Height Fixed Wall System
Video Animation for the CB8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force
MTA Capital Construction
4/4/11

Option with Roof and Roll Up/Down Doors - Nighttime
Video Animation for the CB8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force
MTA Capital Construction
4/4/11

Option with Roof and Roll Up/Down Doors - Daytime
Video Animation for the CB8 Second Avenue Subway Task Force
MTA Capital Construction
4/4/11