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The terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center's subway station on the 1/9 line and shut Port Authority Trans-Hudson commuter train service from New Jersey exacted a terrible price in death and destruction. It also provided a rare opportunity for New York City to reconfigure a key hub in its transportation network. Working 24-7 since last September 11, two New York-area transit agencies and their contractors are pushing to restore and interconnect key transportation links near Ground Zero.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority will resume full 1/9 subway service Sept. 15, a month ahead of schedule, with the joint venture repair contractor earning a $3-million bonus. With its own contractors proceeding on schedule, PATH trains will be running again by the end of 2003, officials say. Those two jobs began early this year with Ground Zero site clearance and account for nearly $700 million of transit-related cleanup, rehab construction and system improvements.
The work is really an intermediate fix that will establish the foundation for a more ambitious undertaking, between $4.55 billion and $7.5 billion of extensive downtown transit improvements. The centerpiece is a hub that will provide a single point for travelers at the tip of Manhattan to access ferry, commuter rail and subway service (ENR 8/19 p. 10). That project "will be sort of like a new Grand Central Terminal downtown," says Mysore L. Nagaraja, MTA chief engineer.
MTA designers working on the preliminary design for that project expect to have plans ready for public review near year's end, but few believe that the terminal will be in operation before 2008, at the earliest.
PATH train and subway service restoration are moving on a much faster track. "We're done on the 1 and 9," says...