Recent MTA Photos and Reports

This brief posting features several images and reports that were released last week by the MTA.



Metropolitan Transportation Authority
2/6/12
Deep underneath Second Avenue inside the 72nd Street station cavern

As of last week, blasting operations in this cavern were reported to be about 70% complete.



Metropolitan Transportation Authority
2/6/12
72nd Street station, Entrance 2 - looking north

The Sandhogs in this image appear to be using a pneumatic machine to drill holes in the rock face. The drilled holes will most likely either be used for rock bolts around the perimeter of this entrance cavern. The rock bolts transfer weight load from the exterior of the rock mass to the confined (and much stronger) interior.

Notice the uphill slope of this cavern. One could assume that the cavern being mined here will be used for a future escalator.



Metropolitan Transportation Authority
2/3/12
TBM tunnel No. 2 (the east tunnel)

This image shows part of the ongoing waterproofing process in the tunnel. The tunnel must be waterproofed before the concrete lining is poured.



Metropolitan Transportation Authority
2/3/12
Inside the launch box, near 92nd Street - looking south

The arch form shown in this image is being used for tunnel concrete operations.

It was reported last week that the concrete lining in the west tunnel was 100% complete; the east tunnel lining was reported to be 65% complete.

The following three reports on the project were issued by the MTA in the past week or so.



Second Avenue Subway
Public Workshop November 2011 Follow-up Report
MTA Capital Construction
37 pages / February 2012

This extensive report includes a long listing of community feedback, positive and negative, that was provided during the Public Workshop that was help last November.

The report states that the MTA took the following major steps soon after the November public workshop:

• A week-long suspension in blasting to overhaul the muck houses
  

• Regularly meetings with community stakeholders at Construction Advisory Committee meetings for the 63rd, 72nd, 86th and 96th Street Station contract areas

• Community tours of the 96th Street and 72nd Street construction sites

• Providing SAS community liaison personnel with identifiable 'Environmental Inspector' or 'Community Liaison' jackets

• Community newsletters for each station construction area, and exploring the possibility of creating a Community Information Center

Second Avenue Subway Quarterly Report - 4Q2011
MTA Capital Construction
36 pages



Capital Program Oversight Report
Second Avenue Subway
6 pages / February 2012



A footnote:
I expect to release a posting with a fresh set of images from my camera next weekend.

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

"MTA Holds Monthly Briefing With Upper East Siders On Second Avenue Construction"
Video (1:59)
By Tina Redwine
NY1 - 2/28/12

Cover Story: Straight Line
The New Yorker
Cover art by Roz Chast
2/27/12
An artist's view of the Second Avenue Subway.

"The Second Avenue subway penalty: An appraiser's view"
By Teri Karush Rogers
BrickUnderground - 2/27/12

"MTA Mulls Night Visits to Homes of Sleepless Second Ave. Subway Neighbors"
By Amy Zimmer
DNAinfo.com - 2/21/12

"Amid a Subway Project’s Dust and Noise, No Complaints About the Rent"
By Elizabeth A. Harris
The New York Times - 2/21/12

What Future the Second Ave. Subway?
By Benjamin Kabak
2nd. Ave. Sagas - 2/16/12