In news that should surprise no one: The Second Avenue subway opening is probably going to be delayed—again
When fellow Yorkville residents talk to me about the soon-to-open Second Avenue Subway line—their eyes wide, their hopes high—I like to turn their attention to a scene in Mad Men in which Peggy's real estate agent tells her that an apartment on the far East Side will quadruple in value as soon as the subway finally opens. That was in 1968.
So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that all signs are pointing to more delays. While the first phase of the new Q line, which covers 96th Street to 63rd Street, was set to open at the very end of this year, that timeline is not looking likely. When all three phases are done, the line will stretch from 125th Street down to Hanover Square (maybe our grandkids will enjoy that).
"We're going to keep the pressure on for the appropriate reasons by December 31, but there isn't a person in the MTACC or on the operations side of the house that wants to rush it when it's not not there," MTA board chairman Tom Prendergast said at an MTA meeting on Monday.
Kent Haggas, an independent engineer working on the project, tells DNA Info that delays on the construction of the 86th Street and 72nd Street stations are holding things up. The 86th Street station still needs work on its elevators and escalators; on 72nd Street, he says, the elevators and escalators are also unfinished and need to be integrated into the station's fire alarm system.
And while the third rail has reportedly already been turned on, "testing of the line's major systems, including fire and smoke alarms, escalators, elevators, ventilation and air conditions, has not been completed yet," he tells the site. Haggas says there are about 300 tests left to go and around 12 weeks to do them. Until now, they've been running eight to 10 tests a week, so that number would have to go up to 25 a week to finish on schedule.
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