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Originally Posted by vkristof
I also wonder what the northern terminus of the "High Line at the Rail Yards" (someplace in the midground of render below) will REALLY look like. AFAIK the lot where the HL returns to ground is NY state owned and used for Javits-related truck trailer storage:
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There will likely be more development there. The state was considering issuing RFPs before, and will likely do so again. The High Line itself will remain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/ny...&rref=nyregion
Trouble With Diagonal Elevator Held Up No. 7 Subway Expansion
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
MAY 29, 2014
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The fate of the newest addition to the New York City subway system could be traced last summer to the foothills of Appiano Gentile, at a work site beneath the northern Italian sun.
After six years of construction, the No. 7 train extension to the Far West Side of Manhattan was to open before the end of 2013, in time for the departing mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, whose administration paid for the project, to take a ceremonial ride. But there was a problem: A custom-designed, diagonal elevator for the new No. 7 train station at 34th Street and 11th Avenue had unexpectedly failed its factory test at the manufacturer’s headquarters in the province of Como.
Transit officials peppered the company, Maspero Elevatori, with questions. Could the issues be resolved quickly? Would they have to adjust the station’s opening date? Answers were elusive.
“It failed in July,” said Michael Horodniceanu, the president of capital construction at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “What happens in August in Europe? They said, ‘O.K., we’ll see you after vacation.' ”
.....the station, and its unusual elevator, provide a useful case study in the difficulties of capital construction in the city.
The idea for a diagonal elevator — two, actually, to go with the station’s escalators and vertical elevators — dates to the project’s genesis more than 10 years ago, the authority said. Angling the structures at an incline was thought to be less expensive than tunneling in relatively straight lines, down and across.
It would also prove a boon to wheelchair users, officials said. A traditional vertical elevator from the upper to the lower mezzanine would have left such passengers about 150 feet from a second elevator that could take them to the platform. But because the incline elevators run parallel to the escalators, Mr. Horodniceanu said, “you are providing a similar experience, irrespective of your handicap.”
.....The controller was made on Long Island. The speed governors, or limiters, came from Ohio. Other pieces, like buttons and speakers, were manufactured in Queens.
“It’s like if Ferrari would be instructed to put in a Chevy engine and a Ford transmission,” said Charley Hart, the project manager for Kone, the company overseeing the elevator and escalator installation. “Yes, it can be done. But it’s a challenge.”
There was also little precedent for such a structure in the American transportation system, and none in New York City’s. The authority has cited stations in Dallas and suburban Washington as predecessors, though the rationales for those projects do not appear to mirror New York’s.
.....Transit officials said they were content with the pace of the work, noting that it was not the only hiccup on the project, which the Bloomberg administration agreed to finance as part of the Hudson Yards development. The atypical funding model means that the station will be the first subway extension paid for by the city in more than 60 years.
But this, too, brought complications. Because of delays in negotiations between the city and the developer, the transportation authority was initially prevented from building auxiliary facilities on time, said Mysore L. Nagaraja, the agency’s president of capital construction from 2003 to 2008.
Escalator work has also dragged, and tests for tunnel ventilation fans have been delayed.
Mr. Horodniceanu said a final hurdle for the project would be completing “integrated testing for fire protection,” which requires all structures, including the escalators and incline elevators, to be ready.
It seems quite likely that, even with perfect elevator performance, the project would not have been free of delays.
Yet the authority has taken a longer view. Officials say that by the end of the year, some 27,000 daily riders will use the station, redefining a long-sleepy neighborhood and providing the only true subway link to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
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Clink the link to get graphic details...
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