Content area
Full Text
As they renovate their 100-year-old subway system, New York City's transit officials are taking a fresh look at how to improve functionality, aesthetics and connectivity. Working beneath the surface, within utilities and around trains that never stop operating, contractors and engineers are improv-
ing 468 subway stations within four boroughs, performing technical feats while keeping the trains running.
The system celebrates its centennial this year, which is also the final year of a $10-billion, five-year capital improvement program. It includes $1.9 billion for rehabilitating 64 stations, $607 million for replacing 40 miles of track, $2 billion for new cars, $650 million for mechanical and ventilation equipment, $654 million for track structures and $1 billion for signaling upgrades.
The project builds on efforts begun in earnest 22 years ago. Work has evolved from cleansing graffiti from neglected stations to making aesthetic and maintenance improvements with a balance of engineering and architecture. A reorganized New York City Transit Authority now emphasizes a variety of contracting methods and engineering techniques. In many cases, they must accommodate what are now regarded as landmark structures.
"Stations in the past 20 years have been landmarked, and design guidelines were created for maintaining mosaics, artwork, et cetera," says Peter Samton, partner with Gruzen Samton LLP, New York City. Using guidelines developed by Rolf Ohlhausen of Ohlhausen DuBois Architects, New York City, "the idea was not to demolish everything, but to preserve and add on," he says. Now, 1% of each station project's budget is dedicated to artistic elements, including exhibits from the Arts for Transit program run by the city's Cultural Affairs Dept.
Mysore Nagaraja, president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Capital Construction Co. and subway chief engineer from 1996-2003, says hazardous material removal is a big issue. "The contractor would find asbestos and other hazardous materials, and that would delay the job," he says. "Now, all hazmat is taken out before the contractor gets there."
Such improvements helped keep 75% of the transit authority's 1995-1999 capital program, including 42 station jobs, on time and within budget, officials say. Nagaraja says total claims during his seven-year tenure amounted to $100 million on $7 billion of capital program work.
"The transit authority developed a structure with principal engineers" for every speciality, such as...