East End Concourse/Penn Station

Cost: $125 million

Development Team

Owner: Amtrak, NYC
Client: New Jersey Transit, Newark, N.J.
Construction Manager: O'Brien Krietzberg, NYC
Design Engineer: Jacobs Civil Inc., Edison, N.J.
General Contractor: Yonkers Contracting Co., Yonkers, N.Y.
Mechanical Contractor: F.W. Sims Inc., West Babylon, N.Y.
Mini-Pile Contractor: Urban Foundation/Engineering, Elmhurst, N.Y.
Deck Shield Contractor: Gottlieb Skanska Inc., Valley Stream, N.Y.
Plumbing Contractor: Taggert Associates Corp., Long Island City, N.Y.
Electrical Contractor: Eldor Contracting Corp., Holbrook, N.Y.
Stone Tile Contractor: Port Morris Tile & Marble Corp., Bronx, N.Y.
Ornamental Ironwork Contractor: Architectural Building Associates Inc., Port Chester, N.Y.
Ornamental Ironwork Contractor: Airflex Corp., Farmingdale, N.Y.
Miscellaneous Metal Contractor: FMB Inc., Harrison, N.J.

Ever since New York City's original Pennsylvania Railroad Station was razed in the early 1960s, what has passed for Penn Station has been little more than a maze of low-ceilinged tunnels under Madison Square Garden and the boxy office complex now owned by Vornado Realty Trust.

Change for the better came last year when New Jersey Transit opened its new $125 million East End Concourse, a 50,000-sq.-ft. station within a station full of bright open spaces, Italian marble walls, granite floors and six well-lit platforms. The concourse is enriched by Larry Kirkland's etchings on the walls of New Jersey landscapes, landmarks and poetry by Jersey poets ranging from Walt Whitman to Amiri Baraka.
It provides access to the station's six southern-most tracks, which serve New Jersey, and connects with the underground network of tunnels that have been called "Penn Station" for a generation now.

Construction took place in three phases. First was the construction of a temporary deck to provide access to the tracks during construction. Next was the removal of asbestos from the underside of Two Penn Plaza. The third phase involved the demolition and removal of major portions of the original Penn Station carriageway structure where Amtrak had been housing its offices.
One of the first tasks prime contractor Yorkers Contracting Co. had to take on was finding out exactly what was in the ground. The original Penn Station was built in 1906 and 60 years later radically modified by the construction of Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza. Several of the "as-built drawings" were incorrect or no longer existed.

"Many of the surrounding buildings' column supports went directly through the location of the planned escalators and stairs," said James Strobel, project manager for Yonkers. "We had to move 10 columns for Two Penn Plaza. We installed new foundations and columns on either side of the existing columns, which meant going down 20 to 40 ft. to the rock using 8-in.-diameter, concrete-filled steel minipiles."
Construction took place 50 ft. underground, so a means of getting materials in and out had to found. A 9-ft.-wide, 16-ft.-long hole was made through a street planter by agreement with Vornado, which allowed workers to bring 900 pieces of steel totaling 300 tons into the construction site.

A 35-ft.-high cherry picker was used to lower each piece of steel into the hole. Underground rigging, chain hoists and trolley systems were built to move the steel girders, some of which weighted up to 4 tons, into place in tight work quarters.
Urban Foundation/Engineering of Elmhurst, N.Y., the project's minipile contractor, devised customized drill rigs that were able to install minipile foundations without taking tracks out of service. Hundreds of utility lines had to be identified, tagged and relocated. Some of this work required the shutdown of service to Amtrak, Madison Square Garden and Two Penn Plaza.

Regular meetings were held to find times, usually at night, that were least disruptive.
The East End Concourse opened in September and ushered in a new era for the115,000 Jersey commuters traveling in and out of Penn Station every weekday.