Future Travel

Transportation Expansion Seen as Key to City's Economic Growth

By Natalie Keith

Mysore Nagaraja is hoping that by 2011, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will have completed a half dozen important infrastructure projects that will allow the city to thrive in the future.

Nagaraja, president of the MTA's newly created Capital Construction Company and former senior vice president and chief engineer at MTA New York City Transit, outlined details of those projects - and the aggressive timetable for completing them - to a New York Building Congress breakfast forum in September.

The projects are:

• East Side Access
  
  
• Second Avenue subway
  
  
• No. 7 subway line extension
  
  
• Fulton Street Transit Center
  
  
• South Ferry Terminal
  
  
• Security enhancements

"These projects will dramatically enhance commercial, economic, residential and cultural development of New York City and the surrounding areas," said Katherine N. Lapp, executive director of the MTA.

The $5.3 billion East Side Access project - which will allow Long Island Rail Road trains to go through the 63rd Street tunnel into Grand Central Terminal - is seen as the only way to increase the capacity of Penn Station.

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The project will allow Long Island and Queens commuters to travel directly to destinations in the Grand Central area and avoid having to take the subway. The project is expected to be completed in 2011.

"By doing this, we're going to enable customers from all areas to go where they want to go," Nagaraja said.

The East Side Access project will increase LIRR capacity to Manhattan by 50 percent - the only way to bring more workers into Manhattan from eastern Queens and Long Island, he added.

With trains from the LIRR, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, Penn Station is the busiest commuter railroad station in the country.

So far, five construction contracts with a combined value of $176 million have been awarded and total contract commitments worth $782 million have been made on the East Side Access project. The MTA/local share of funding is 91 percent with federal funding at 9 percent.

Construction is underway on the vertical tunnel shaft in Queens, the Highbridge yard and shop for Metro-North in the Bronx, the Arch Street yard and shop for LIRR in Queens and Grand Central terminal east-yard improvements.

Although $1.5 billion has been allocated for the project, funding is not entirely in place.

The $17 billion Second Avenue subway project is an 8.5-mi., two-track line along Second Avenue from 125th Street to the financial district in Lower Manhattan. It includes 16 new stations and a flexing rail connection to the 63rd Street line.

An environmental impact study will be completed in a few months. Although there is $1.05 billion funding for the project in the MTA 2000-4 capital program, the project is not yet completely funded, Nagaraja said.

Because the $2 billion No. 7 subway line extension project is viewed as critical to the development of the Far West Side of Manhattan, the MTA is hoping the city will pay for it.

In this project, the subway line, which currently ends at Times Square, would be extended along 42nd Street and down 11th Avenue to the Jacob Javits Center area.

The city is in the process of developing a rezoning plan for the Far West Side - which planners view as an area ripe for future commercial and residential development.

The project is in the design phase with the MTA in discussions with stakeholders such as neighboring property owners, Jacob Javits Center operators and the New York Jets.

"The whole idea is that by building the subway, the city can grow on the West Side," Nagaraja said.

The federal government is funding the downtown projects that Nagaraja is overseeing. The $750 million Fulton Street Transit Center will link six different subway stations built by different private companies between 1905 and 1933. About 250,000 passengers use these stations each day.

The new transit center will have more surface access points, a new pedestrian concourse under Dey Street, new and expanded station mezzanines and passageways, and a high-visibility entrance at Fulton Street and Broadway. The project is expected to be completed by 2007.

"Right now to find the entrance you have to look for a barber shop," Nagaraja joked.

Plans for the South Ferry Terminal include building a new two-track station underneath State Street so that all cars on the train can load and unload. Problems at the station with its current configuration can cause delays along the No. 1/9, 2 and 3 lines.

The $400 million project is expected to be completed in 2007.

Nagaraja is also overseeing $600 million in security enhancements that have been funded by the federal government. This program will cover the design and construction of systemwide security-related projects.