[NYguy]

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/mid...ob-11573394400

Midtown Manhattan Braces for MTA’s Massive 20-Year Construction Job


By Paul Berger
Nov. 10, 2019

Midtown Manhattan will soon be upended by 20 years of construction as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority begins repairs to an underground entryway to Grand Central Terminal.

The state-controlled transit authority needs to overhaul a series of bridges and a viaduct that form a 75-acre train shed housing the terminal’s platforms and tracks.

The 1.8-mile viaduct is better known to New Yorkers as Park Avenue.

The two-story train shed houses dozens of platforms and 86 tracks that taper to four tracks as they head north toward a tunnel at East 57th Street.

To restore the facility, the MTA must excavate streets and sidewalks along a canyon of buildings housing some of the city’s major financial firms. It also must rip up the tiny oases of trees, shrubs and flowers, known as malls, that line the center of Park Avenue.

Then it will repair or replace each section of the train shed before putting the streetscape back together. The entire project is expected to be completed around 2040.

A recent adjustment to local zoning rules allows property owners and developers to replace buildings with larger towers. Mr. Cerullo said that depending upon the timing and location of those construction projects, the area could be strained.

The MTA says that wherever possible it will pair its work with tower construction, taking advantage of a situation in which lanes and sidewalks are already closed.

The authority will begin at 270 Park Ave., where JPMorgan Chase & Co. is demolishing its headquarters to build a new tower. An MTA spokesman said the authority expects to maintain at least two of the three lanes of traffic on that block of Park Avenue while work is under way.

The rezoning required construction projects to include transit and public space upgrades. JPMorgan has agreed that its contractor, Tishman Construction Corp., will perform work on the first phase of the train shed. The financial company also will contribute $25 million toward the first phase of the MTA work, which is budgeted at $350 million, the MTA says.

The train shed feeds about 700 Metro-North trains into and out of Grand Central each weekday. When it opened just over 100 years ago, the facility was exposed to the elements. But it was soon covered over and built upon.

Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief development officer, said the train shed’s existence makes possible the valuable real estate that lines Park Avenue. “We have to marshall the will to do the work,” Mr. Lieber said. “We can’t just put it off ad infinitum.“