NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority remains mum on its date to open Grand Central Madison, the new Long Island Rail Road station beneath Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. But that date has moved one step closer with the announcement that operational control of the facility has shifted from MTA Construction and Development, the agency responsible for building the terminal, to the LIRR.
The MTA announced Sunday that control had been transferred at noon on Friday, Dec. 9, a shift overseen by the Federal Railroad Administration.
“Today’s announcement means that Grand Central Madison is formally changing from a construction site to a railroad terminal,” said Catherine Rinaldi, interim president of the LIRR as well as president of the Metro-North Railroad. “This is a historic, major milestone for the project. The LIRR is delighted to have received this extraordinary nearly completed new train terminal and railroad staff are looking forward to safely beginning train service for customers.”
The MTA has said it expects the terminal to open this year. Testing continues, both for railroad operations and from a construction standpoint, the MTA said, with contractors testing air flow and safety systems, as well as escalators and elevators.
Construction began on the more than $11 billion East Side Access project — which will allow LIRR trains to serve both Grand Central and Penn Station — in 2007. At one time, it was projected to open in 2009; that opening date gradually was pushed back, but the 2022 opening date has held steady since at least 2015. The facility received its Grand Central Madison name earlier this year [see “East Side Access terminal gets new name,” Trains News Wire, June 1, 2022].
How long before the homeless, the mentally ill, and non-incarcerated feral felons take over the station?
The I-5/ SR 16 interchange plus 6 miles of roadway rebuilt and 2 new bridges over the Puyallup River in the Tacoma, WA area took 22 years to complete. That is a ridiculous amount of time, a whole generation has grown into young adults and never knew anything else.
With all of today’s technology and modern construction methods and equipment, you would think that things could be built quicker and done on time and within the budget set but no things take longer due to cost overruns, government red tape plus competitive bidding and all these endless studies and surveys and those costly environmental impact reports. The orginal commuters for whom this terminal was built for have either passed away or have retired and moved to other areas of the country. When you look at the great engineering acaccomplishments of years past how quickly they were built and without any modern tools or equipment. The orginal Contract One IRT subway line from City Hall to 145th Street took only 4 years to build from 1900 to its opening in 1904. The transcontinental railroad started in 1862 took only 7 years to build under some of harshest conditions and with primitive construction tools and equipment by today’s modern standards and finished in 1869. We have a lot to learn and can be inspired by the builders of yesteryear by how they built great terminals, railroads and tunnels with limited resources, money and primitive technology and tools and equipment, some are which are still standing and in use today. The 1873 Howard Street tunnel in Baltimore while ancient by today’s standards is still a functioning and important link in the Northeast Corridor line.
Joseph C. Markfelder
The 1873 NEC tunnels in Baltimore City are the B&P Tunnels (named for the Baltimore and Potomac RR) These are three double-track tunnels with short open air cuts between them. The tunnels require constant attention and are barely functioning.
Construction will start on the replacement Frederick Douglass Tunnel this year.
CSX recently enlarged the 1890’s B&O Howard St. Tunnel to take double-stacks.
15 years from start to completion? Slower than molasses.
These are retirement projects. IE You start to work after graduating from high school and working until you reach social security retirement age! 🙂 or maybe I should say :-$
Then there is Michigan’s I-696 Walter P. Reuther Freeway. Governor George Romney chose the route (the 10 Mile Road alignment option) in 1968. Construction started in 1983. The freeway opened in 1989.
At the time it seemed slower than molasses. That was the good old days. Projects now take longer.
It’s worse than that. The 63rd Street Tunnel which this project connects to began construction in 1969. It has two levels. The subway level has been in service for some years now, but the LIRR level that this project connects to has yet to see a regular service train!
$11 million ???
$11 Billion ??
My exact thought. If only $11 million, we could get lots of transit built in this country.
Was $11M the original estimate for the project when it was in the planning stages?
$11 BILLION. This is NY.