The MTA outlined plans Monday to maintain the extension of the Second Avenue Subway to East Harlem on observe — even because it battles the Trump administration in federal courtroom over funding for the $7 billion challenge.
The transit authority’s board will vote Wednesday to award the third of 4 contracts for the deliberate three-station extension of the Q line from 96th to a hundred and twenty fifth streets. The vote will come simply over per week after the MTA sued the federal authorities, charging that it’s withholding $60 million in promised funding.
Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA Development & Growth, mentioned the beginning of labor hinges on “the uncertainty created by the federal government’s recent refusal to reimburse us” below a contractual settlement reached in 2023.
“We’re committing to delivering this project on time and on budget and we continue to do so and will do so if we’re able to follow through and award this contract as soon as possible,” Torres-Springer mentioned, including that the authority is “prepared to move quickly once federal uncertainty is resolved.”
MTA officers described the looming work as “perhaps the most technically challenging” a part of the subway line extension, with 60-feet deep trenches set to be dug alongside Second Avenue from one hundred and fifth to one hundred and tenth streets throughout development that can take away 215,000 cubic yards of earth.
If all goes because the MTA hopes, the work would start later this yr.
All of that may be achieved, officers mentioned, whereas retaining Second Avenue open to vehicular site visitors, in addition to buildings and companies alongside the trail of the deliberate route.
“Special care will be taken to ensure the access to the buildings, businesses and schools is continuously maintained,” mentioned Jignesh Shah, senior director for MTA Development & Growth.
The contract is for excavation and development of the Q line’s 106th Road station. Work would choose up south of one hundred and fifth Road, connecting “tail tracks” simply north of the tip of the road’s first section to a tunnel that’s been mothballed for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, when work on a line first proposed in 1929 was halted through the metropolis’s monetary disaster.
“It fulfills a promise almost a century old to bring subway service to East Harlem,” Torres-Springer mentioned.
La Amistad Pizzeria & Grill is working behind development fencing in East Harlem as work on the following section of the Second Avenue Subway begins, March 23, 2026. Jose Martinez/THE CITY
The primary section of the Second Avenue Subway opened in 2017, with cavernous new stations constructed at 72nd, 86th and 96th streets.
However now, the destiny of the challenge is snarled in a courtroom combat with the Trump administration, with the MTA charging that the alleged breach of contract threatens the timetable for the long-planned subway extension.
In keeping with the lawsuit filed final week, the breach “has required the MTA to divert millions of dollars away from other critical transportation projects in order to fill the gap.”
“Their refusal to honor the full funding grant agreement for the Second Avenue Subway is a farce,” Brian Fritsch, affiliate director for the Everlasting Residents Advisory Committee to the MTA, testified Monday at conferences of the authority’s board. “And we applaud Governor Hochul and the MTA for taking the feds to court.”
The Trump administration has been essential of transit development prices, whereas MTA officers have mentioned the authority is working to include prices throughout its initiatives.
“The Department is committed to ensuring taxpayers dollars are used efficiently, consistent with the law and our constitution,” a spokesperson for the federal Division of Transportation mentioned.
The feds final yr froze funding on the subway extension, in addition to the Gateway challenge to construct a brand new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey, questioning whether or not the initiatives are according to a USDOT rule on deprived enterprise enterprises. Work on the Hudson River rail tunnel resumed final month amid one other federal courtroom combat.
MTA officers mentioned work on the primary contract for the following phase of the Second Avenue Subway is “aggressively advancing.”
“Our utility relocations have advanced significantly,” mentioned Matthew Zeetwoch, vice chairman and program govt at MTA Development & Growth. “Gas, power, water, sewer and telecommunications are rapidly being relocated.”
At La Amistad Pizzeria & Grill, whose storefront at 106th Road and Second Avenue is already hid by development fencing for the subway challenge, proprietor Ediberto Rendon mentioned the enterprise is now in “survival mode.”
Rendon mentioned he fears the eight-year-old enterprise might not outlast the development.
Ediberto Rendon operates a pizza store in East Harlem, March 23, 2026. Jose Martinez/THE CITY
“I’m all for it, the thing is it’s really hurting me right now,” he instructed THE CITY. “That’s the thing I really need to figure out how to attack — my regulars know I’m here, but I don’t get new customers.”
A couple of blocks north, one other shopkeeper mentioned her household’s small grocery retailer is struggling behind the fencing even earlier than the heavier work begins.
“Right now, it’s a miracle if we get new customers because of all of this,” mentioned Adela Zamora, whose household owns Raspberry Deli & Grocery Co. “When the actual digging starts, it’s going to be even more problematic — more people, more construction all day long.”
Zamora mentioned she is hopeful that the extension of the subway to East Harlem will finally be a boon for the neighborhood and town.
“I’m counting on it, honestly,” she mentioned. “But it’s definitely a struggle.”
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