New York City’s Second Avenue subway is about to move closer to extending into Harlem as transit officials anticipate construction will begin by year-end.
(Bloomberg) — New York City’s Second Avenue subway is about to move closer to extending into Harlem as transit officials anticipate construction will begin by year-end.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the city’s subway, buses and commuter rail lines, is soliciting bids for the first construction contract for the nearly $7 billion project, six years after the completion of the initial phase of the long-awaited line.
The 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) expansion will connect the line’s current terminus at 96th Street on the Upper East Side to 125th Street in Harlem, featuring three new fully accessible stations. It will also offer an easy transfer to Metro-North Railroad, which serves the city’s northern suburbs and Connecticut.
“We remain committed to keeping this long-envisioned project moving along swiftly for East Harlem, and I am proud to see it moving one step closer to reality,” Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement Wednesday announcing the move to solicit bids.
The next phase of the line will take roughly seven to eight years to complete once work begins, Jamie Torres-Springer, president of construction and development for the MTA, said via email.
The MTA estimates the new development will serve an additional 100,000 riders daily. The first phase of the Second Avenue subway, which extends the Q line from Midtown Manhattan to 96th Street on the Upper East Side, carried more than 200,000 passengers daily before the pandemic. The Q train’s other terminus is the Coney Island stop in Brooklyn.
New Yorkers waited decades for an underground subway to serve Harlem and the Upper East Side after elevated trains running through those neighborhoods along Second Avenue were torn down in the 1940s.
“It is the most transit-dependent part of New York City, as judged by how people get to and from work and to school and otherwise,” Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief executive officer, said during a monthly board meeting on June 27. “They’ve been waiting for a subway all these years and now we’re on the verge of landing the federal grant that’s going to make it happen.”
The first phase of the project, which opened in 2017, has drawn criticism for its price tag. At $4.6 billion, it became the world’s most-expensive subway on a cost-per-kilometer basis, according to New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.
There is, however, another way to look at the project’s cost.
The line serves some of the nation’s most densely populated neighborhoods, according to the institute. The first phase cost about $22,500 per passenger, based on pre-pandemic ridership levels. That’s better than other US subway and light rail developments and compares favorably with ongoing transit and commuter rail tunnel projects in some European cities, according to the institute.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.