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The Transit Authority's subway station restoration program marksits first anniversary this week with the work almost a year behindschedule and 100 percent over budget. "We underestimated the complexity of the problems, and we've also raised our sights somewhat," Charles Stanford, TA chief of track and structures, said. "Some of these stations have historic features. Our tendency was to rush in like clods, and we've had to step back and make sure we do things right."
It is the second time the TA has had difficulty upgrading the 84-year-old subway system's dark, dank and decrepit stations. A year ago this week, the authority abandoned a systemwide rebuilding program that was $48 million over budget and proceeding so slowly that executives said it would have taken 102 years to complete all 463 stations.
In its place, TA executives authorized $31 million over 18 months to restore 44 stations to close to what they looked like when they were built. They chose some of the most historically significant Manhattan stations, and a line of elevated stations in Queens.
At the one-year mark, work has begun on only 20 of the stations, and is running an average of 11 1/2 months behind schedule. Cost projections have doubled, to $1 million for an elevated station and $2 million for an underground facility.
"It's really disappointing," said Beverly Dolinsky, who chairs the PermaSUBWAYS on Page 21 SUBWAYS from Page 3 nent Citizens Advisory Committee to the TA's parent body, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. "If their goal is to restore 15 percent ridership, they are going to have to act a lot more quickly. Now that the service is improving, the major impediment to people coming back to the subways is the poor environment in the stations."
"Maybe we should have put off the toughest stations until later in the program," Stanford said. "But they are important, both in ridership and historical value, and we felt they should be done first."
Contributing to the delays and cost overruns is a dispute over the program's mandate, which calls for replacing only what is damaged and matching existing materials where possible.
Stanford and his fellow engineers interpreted the directive as a cost-cutting measure, he said. Their budget and work schedule assumed that they...