Work began Sept. 14 to rehabilitate the Rutgers Tube, which carries the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) F subway line under the East River.
The Tube is the eleventh and final MTA tunnel under a major body of water to be rebuilt as a result of damage sustained during Superstorm Sandy. The project will use lessons learned and innovative methods from the L Subway Project that will allow the work to be done during overnight hours and on weekends, averting the need to fully close the tube.
The start date and other project details have been communicated to customers, elected officials and other community members in recent weeks via a project microsite, station signage, social media and a virtual public town hall meeting held via videoconference last week. Additional outreach will continue throughout the duration of the project.
“The L subway train project demonstrated that the MTA can deliver major projects much faster and at less cost than anybody expected,” said Janno Lieber, president of MTA Construction & Development. “Now, with the Rutgers (F Subway Train) tube, we’re on a mission to prove that we can make it the norm, as we continue to embrace advanced technologies and private sector development techniques.”
“Once complete, we will have rehabilitated every tunnel damaged during Sandy, further fortifying the system against future natural disasters,” said Sarah Feinberg, interim president of MTA New York City Transit. “We’re working to make sure this work leads to as few disruptions as possible for our customers and look forward to getting this vital project underway in the weeks ahead.”
The MTA is working on nights and weekends and taking advantage of the overnight closure of the subway to minimize inconvenience to 35,000 riders. The MTA is coordinating work so it does not coincide with signal replacements in the A Subway/C Subway Line’s Cranberry Tube to reduce service impacts, and negotiated with the contractor to get an earlier start, which will result in fewer weekend outages and an earlier end to the project.
The Rutgers Tube Project will rehabilitate systems and components within the tube that were damaged during Superstorm Sandy and replace other parts that have reached the end of their useful lives. Drawing on lessons learned during the L Subway Project, the federally funded Rutgers Tube project will install a cable management racking system much like the one installed in the L Subway Line’s Canarsie Tunnel. The project’s 14-month overall construction will be the fastest of all Sandy tube rehabilitations, which averaged 28 months, says MTA.
The project will also feature replacement of track, signal equipment, power and communication cables, fan plant equipment, tunnel lighting and pumps. The project includes work to harden the pumping system as a resiliency enhancement by relocating the pump controls outside of the flood zone and providing a backup generator connection. The tube was inundated with more than 1.5-million gallons of water during Superstorm Sandy.
To take advantage of the diversions of service for the work within the Rutgers Tube, the project includes structural repairs and platform accessibility work at the East Broadway station as well as cellular service within the tube.
MTA says the Rutgers tube rehabilitation is the first of its kind to fully utilize the fast-track design-build approach, rather than design-bid-build.
