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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.
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PATH
WORK Project includes two terminals
and Hudson River tunnels.
(Image courtesy of Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey) |
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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 Peter Tully, president of Tully Construction.
Last winter MTA hired the Flushing, N.Y.-based
contractor in joint venture with A.J. Pegno
Construction Corp., College Point, N.Y. Although the
contract scope was an evolving concept, the task at
hand was fairly straightforward: restore 1/9 service
as quickly as possible.
The attack
closed three stations: Cortland St., within the World
Trade Center; Rector St., a few blocks south of Ground
Zero; and South Ferry, which provides access to the
Staten Island Ferry Terminal at the southern tip of
Manhattan. "We had 1,800 ft of subway line
completely destroyed," says Nagaraja. MTA's
in-house engineers, with assistance from New York
City-based consulting engineers Parsons Brinckerhoff
Inc., quickly decided to leave the Cortland station
closed until a replacement could be integrated into
Lower Manhattan Development Corp. site reconstruction
plans.
The most
expeditious plan meant reconstructing the track
"exactly as it was upon completion in 1918, with
the same alignment," says Nagaraja.
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| STRIPPED
PATH tunnels get new conduit and
track. (Photo by Michael Goodman for
ENR) |
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The
in-house estimate for restoring track, adding signal
equipment and rehabilitating and reopening the Rector
St. station was about $200 million. But the Tully-Pegno
bid came in at $92 million. Change orders will push
that to about $110 million, says Tully. Approximately
$40 million worth of additional materials–track,
power supplies, communication and signal
systems–pushes the total to about $150 million,
Nagaraja says. MTA, missing a vital connection in a
656-mile system that serves 4.8 million passengers
every day, added change orders as it discovered the
extent of the damage.
Early work
involved stabilizing the interface between the subway
line and the WTC "bathtub" foundation. Crews
placed more than $500,000 worth of grout and gunnite
in sinkholes and voids. Restoring the original station
design meant building a box tunnel approximately 800
ft long and 100 ft wide, comprising steel bents on
5-ft centers, enclosed in concrete.
Working two
12-hour shifts daily, the joint venture took the
change orders in stride and replaced 1,900 ft of track
and fully restored and reconditioned the Rector St.
station. A test train was scheduled to run Aug. 30,
and New York Gov. George E. Pataki (R) is scheduled to
inaugurate resumed service in a ceremony Sept. 15.
"It's
amazing to see the new tracks and station in such a
short time," says Tully. MTA advanced the
contractors $20 million to purchase materials,
Nagaraja says. A $100,000-per-day early completion
bonus, capped at $3 million, added incentive. Tully-Pegno
earned the full amount. "More than the money,
there was an emotional commitment to the job, with
both the contractor and our people," say Nagaraja.
"You could see it this summer when the
temperature was 95û to 100û in the tunnel. Nobody
complained; they just kept working."
A can-do
attitude also prevails on PATH train repairs, says Tom
Groark, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
engineer of construction. A $544-million program
includes three tasks: construction of a temporary
terminal at the World Trade Center site, improvements
to the Exchange Place terminal in Jersey City, N.J.,
and rehabilitation of the Hudson River tunnels
connecting the two stations.
Tully and
Pegno are also joint venture contract partners here,
along with Yonkers, N.Y.-based Yonkers Contracting Co.
Inc. When the port authority awarded the net-cost
contract, "the project scope was not clearly
defined," says Groark. Though an unprecedented
event created the work, "we didn't change our
spec book for this job. It's just on a very fast
track," he says.
Site access
was the first challenge. The 16-ft, 6-in.-dia tunnels
were flooded for 40 days. By February crews began to
strip out ruined conduits, ductwork, track and
ballast. All will be replaced after minor structural
repair to the tunnels.
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| BOX
BUILDING Subway track enclosure and
alignment mimics the 1918 original.
(Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR) |
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Exchange
Place improvements include new switches and
connections to ferry terminals, track upgrades and
tunnel expansion to accommodate 10-car trains. With
office buildings above the station, subsurface work
requires expertise, says Groark. In mica-schist,
"we're using three methods: drill-and-blast,
large impact hammers and a road-header that grinds the
rock," he says.
Work will
require removal of 12,000 cu yd of material. Exchange
Place improvements are estimated at $160 million, the
same amount as tunnel repair. The job is expected to
wrap next spring, says Greg Trevor, PA spokesman.
Across the
Hudson, the $224-million temporary station at the
World Trade Center will feature three eight-train
platforms, new escalators and elevators and subway
access.
The wing
walls for the station are already in place.
"We're putting in new electrical and
communications ducts," Tully says. Within a
month, crews will start replacing track. The
contractor is on or ahead of schedule on all three
repair segments, Tully says, adding that service could
resume as early as 2003.
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