Best of 2006 Awards
Times Square Station Complex Rehabilitation Phase 2
AWARD OF MERIT: Mass Transit
 Confusing. Convoluted. Undermaintained. Awkward. Overcrowded. Physically appalling.
Those are some of the words once used to describe New York City Transit’s sprawling, often-chaotic Times Square subway station, which serves more than 200,000 passengers daily.
Multiple trains converge at the station, which came together over many years early last century as various independent subway lines were built under the busy Midtown district with no master plan. When the lines merged into one publicly run system decades ago, the station grew into a complex warren of platforms, stairways, and connections that over years of neglect acquired a dingy feel.
The transit agency, a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is in the midst of a three-phase program intended to bring major improvements, including better connections and circulation. None of it came easy.
The project was decades in the making, stymied by tight budgets, politics, and design disputes. Those hurdles cleared by 1998, when a $90 million first phase began with extensive utility relocations and upgrades and the reconstruction of a mezzanine level. It was completed in 2002.
That paved the way for the $100 million second phase, which began in April 2003, and finished in August. The recently completed leg focused on rehabilitating platforms serving the Flushing line’s 7 train and the BMT line of the N, R, Q, and W trains, which connect at the station with various other lines. A future third phase is in the current MTA capital plan, though no start date is set.
“I thought it was a standout,” one Best of 2006 judge said. “It was a very complex job.”
The second phase entailed renovating the subway platforms; building new stairways, escalators, and elevators; improving lighting and signage; and modernizing aged facilities. The project team also built new connections between lines.
The effort also involved work outside of publicly accessible areas, including track signal improvements; modernized communications; replacement of street utilities, including a century-old water line; and rehabilitation of employee facilities tucked within the complex.
Constant planning throughout the project was crucial because even little changes, such as the occasional closing of station entrances or stairways, could affect tens of thousands of passengers each day. Although passengers kept coming and trains kept rolling through the station 24 hours a day, the project finished on budget and on time this summer.
Key Players
Owner-Developer: Metropolitan Transportation Authority-New York City Transit
Construction Manager: Bovis Lend Lease
Construction Manager-Consultant: DMJM Harris
Construction Subconsultant: Ben Thompson Associates; Matrix New World Engineering; Maitra Associates
General Contractor Joint Venture: Schiavone Construction; Granite-Halmar
Architect: William Nicholas Boudova and Associates
Structural Engineer: Vollmer Associates
Electrical Engineer: Mariano D. Molina
Steel: Iron Eagle Construction
Mechanical: Dan Yant Mechanical
Plumbing: IMP Plumbing & Heating
Concrete: Minelli Construction
Electrical: Kleinberg Electric
Tile: New York Stone |
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