Water Valve Problem Sends Geyser Shooting From Second Avenue

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A massive geyser erupted on the Upper East Side Thursday due to a problem with a valve.

As CBS2’s Matt Kozar reported, water shot into the area for several minutes on Second Avenue at 84th Street, in the Second Avenue Subway construction area.

Investigators said a fitting on a replacement main failed.

The water in the area was shut off so crews could make the necessary repairs.

Baby, Baby, Where Did Our Second Avenue Subway Money Go?

October 29, 2015

But Tom Wright, the head of the Regional Plan Association, said a tunneling delay is as good as a tunnel deferred. “To take a full billion out of that is not a cut — it’s a gut,” he said. He added that by pushing the project back, the MTA would end up paying more in the long run. “What we’ve seen with other projects, when they delay,” he said, “it’s not just that they take much longer, but the costs end up escalating enormously.”

Read the full article in WYNC.

When Robert J. Rodriguez learned on Wednesday that construction to bring the Second Avenue subway to his East Harlem neighborhood would be delayed until at least 2020, the New York State assemblyman was furious. The more affluent Upper East Side is expected to get three stations on the new line next year, while his district waits endlessly for its turn.

“For them not to bring this to an area that clearly demonstrates an economic need — as well as a transportation need to move people into other parts of Manhattan more efficiently — it is outrageous and screams of inequality,” Mr. Rodriguez said on Thursday.

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Taking Sides On The Second Avenue Subway

Amid dueling state and federal deadlines for the phase one completion of the 2nd Avenue Subway, Upper East Siders expressed skepticism it would be completed on time while local pols lauded the progress that has been made and urged the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to keep hitting their targets.

On time, in this case, means Dec. 31, 2016, the MTA’s self-imposed deadline by which paying customers could swipe through the turnstiles and ride a subway line that was first conceived in the 1920s. But the Federal Transit Administration, which provided $1.3 billion for phase one, puts the project’s estimated date of completion at over a year later, on Feb. 28, 2018.

In a federal oversight committee hearing this past June, Matthew Welbes, the executive director of the FTA, said a revised funding agreement reached in March with the MTA includes a completion date of Feb. 28, 2018.

“And that was based on what we agreed to with the MTA. If the MTA can deliver the project sooner, we would be proud to see that happen, right? It looks like the project is trending, based on our data, toward an opening of closer to, maybe early in, sometime in 2017,” said Welbes.

Local elected officials gathered last week outside of the 72nd Street Station to express optimism tinged with expectation.

Taking Sides on the 2nd Ave. Subway

By Daniel Fitzsimmons

Published Jun 23, 2015 at 11:42 am (Updated Jun 24, 2015)

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The state and federal governments have cited different deadlines for finishing the first phase of the project

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  Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Member Ben Kallos, Congresswoman Maloney at a press conference last week touting the progress of phase one of the Second Avenue Subway project.

Amid dueling state and federal deadlines for the phase one completion of the 2nd Avenue Subway, Upper East Siders expressed skepticism it would be completed on time while local pols lauded the progress that has been made and urged the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to keep hitting their targets.

On time, in this case, means Dec. 31, 2016, the MTA’s self-imposed deadline by which paying customers could swipe through the turnstiles and ride a subway line that was first conceived in the 1920s. But the Federal Transit Administration, which provided $1.3 billion for phase one, puts the project’s estimated date of completion at over a year later, on Feb. 28, 2018.

In a federal oversight committee hearing this past June, Matthew Welbes, the executive director of the FTA, said a revised funding agreement reached in March with the MTA includes a completion date of Feb. 28, 2018.

“And that was based on what we agreed to with the MTA. If the MTA can deliver the project sooner, we would be proud to see that happen, right? It looks like the project is trending, based on our data, toward an opening of closer to, maybe early in, sometime in 2017,” said Welbes.

Local elected officials gathered last week outside of the 72nd Street Station to express optimism tinged with expectation.

“In May 2014, the MTA reported that the project was 65 percent finished – and it’s now more than 83 percent complete,” said East Side Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “That’s good news, but they have a lot more to do if they are going to finish it by December 2016.”

Maloney said she wants to make sure the MTA meets their target, and that the best way to do that is to keep a close eye on their progress. “With transportation construction, time really is money,” she said at the press conference. “If the project goes long, costs will go up.”

Last week, during an information session at Temple Israel, locals expressed a measure of skepticism regarding the December 2016 completion date.

“Given what I’ve seen, and all the construction, I have a feeling there’s going to be some slippage,” said David Rosenstein, a Community Board 8 member. “I’m making New Year’s Eve plans to do something else.”

“It’s been noted that the feds seem to be commenting on the later date,” said Elizabeth Patrick, who lives on 72nd Street and Second Avenue. “So we’re wondering.”

“Sorry, but I don’t buy the end of 2016,” said one woman who declined to give her name. “But that’s my skepticism as a New Yorker.”

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Member Ben Kallos, Congresswoman Maloney at a press conference last week touting the progress of phase one of the Second Avenue Subway project.

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Peek Inside The Unfinished Underworld Of New York’s Subway

Behold a tunnel nearly a century in the making.

New York City’s subway system is one of the biggest in the world. And building it out is a logistical nightmare very few of its 4.3 million daily riders ever get to witness. Breaking Ground, a new photography exhibit by Patrick Cashin, offers a glimpse at the rugged, unfinished underworld of the MTA’s major capital projects.

The photos give an up-close look at what it takes to burrow through miles of bedrock. Most of the photographs look like the set of some dystopian sci-fi film, with massive rubble-filled caves and dingy lighting reflected off construction workers’ orange vests.

Cashin, formerly a Newsweek photographer, has been documenting the MTA’s subterranean excavations for 15 years. Pictured is a tunnel boring machine drilling into bedrock for the East Side Access project, which will link the Long Island Rail Road to Grand Central Terminal, as well as the work on the 7 Line extension to Manhattan’s west side.

Perhaps the most staggering photo features the tunnel beneath Second Avenue awaiting finishing touches to become the 96 St Q station. City officials have been planning the Second Avenue subway since World War I, and partial construction was done in the ’30s and ’70s, but it was halted during the ’70s financial crisis. Construction finally resumed in 2007. Cashin’s photograph shows a tunnel nearly a century in the making. The total cost of the 8.5-mile line, the first phase of which is set to open in December 2016, is expected to exceed $17 billion.

From these photos, you can see why such a project takes so long and costs so much—manmade machines versus miles of bedrock is a David and Goliath-like struggle.

Breaking Ground will be on view at Manhattan’s Bowling Green 4-5 station for a year.

[All Photos: MTA Arts &Design/Patrick J. Cashin]

See more photos and a video