The launch of congestion pricing has put the MTA’s plan to stretch the Second Avenue Subway from the Higher East Aspect to Harlem one cease nearer to its last vacation spot.
Days earlier than the Jan. 5 begin of the vehicle-tolling initiative that’s seemed to as a serious supply of funding for the $7.1 billion growth mission, the MTA issued a request for proposals from corporations that may design, engineer and construct the extension of the Q line between 96th and one 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 building division, instructed 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 one 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 one hundred and fifteenth Avenue, Luis Martinez, 47, mentioned he would gladly commerce the complications that accompany years of building for quicker 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 corporations and in addition to Jan. 8 mission web site excursions at a hundred and twentieth Avenue and Second Avenue mark important steps ahead for the mission, 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 building 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 best way for congestion pricing.
The income that’s anticipated to be generated from tolling autos coming into Manhattan on or south of sixtieth Avenue permits the transit company to satisfy funding necessities to match a $3.4 billion grant the Biden administration awarded in November 2023.
Over, Beneath, Round and By way of
In accordance 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 corporations pre-qualified by MTA Development and Improvement to bid on the mission. A contract for about 4 years is predicted 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 one hundred and fifteenth Avenue to a hundred and twentieth Avenue can be rehabilitated, with the northern finish of the prevailing tunnel at Second Avenue to be demolished.
As well as, a boring machine will carve out tunnels going from Second Avenue and a hundred and twentieth Avenue to some extent west of Malcolm X Boulevard and one hundred and twenty fifth Avenue. A cavern can be carved out for a one hundred and twenty fifth Avenue Q line station — with connections to the prevailing one hundred and twenty fifth Avenue stops on the 4, 5, 6 strains 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, government 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 mission’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 one hundred and twenty fifth Avenue. Credit score: Rendering through MTA
A spokesperson for the transit company instructed 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 one 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 mission of the MTA’s 2020-2024 capital program. The greater than $50 billion, five-year plan to keep up and develop the transit system was going through an enormous funding hole till congestion pricing was carried out after years of effort.
East Harlemites mentioned they’re hopeful that the lengthy await a subway line will finally be value 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.”
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