NEW YORK — The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced plans to award a $382 million design-build contract to begin reconstruction of the Park Avenue Viaduct in East Harlem, a project with huge implications for Metro-North commuter train operations.
All Metro-North trains to Grand Central Terminal — which represent 98% of all the commuter railroad’s trains — must use the 1¼-mile, four-track viaduct between 110th Street and the Harlem River Lift Bridge. The project will require replacement of segments of an elevated steel structure, nearly half of which was built in 1893. It will also include replacing tracks, as well as power, communication, and signal systems from the north side of East 115th Street to the south side of East 123rd Street.
In a recent interview with Trains News Wire, Metro-North President Catherine Rinaldi talked about the viaduct work as “a huge, huge project that’s going to be enormously impactful.
“You can’t shut the railroad down for a year and a half, right?” Rinaldi said. “That’s going to require a lot of coordination between Metro-North operations and the [Construction & Development] folks. It’s how do you get the work done efficiently and quickly, but you’ve got to get it done. … It’s important for the overall integrity [and] the safety of the railroad. Those kind of coordinating efforts are going to be extremely challenging and important.”
Along with the design-build contract, MTA’s project arm, MTA Construction & Development, will address labor costs for the project through a Project Labor Agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and Vicinity. The MTA says this should bring cost savings through improved work rules — such as unified holidays, 40-hour work weeks, flexible start times, and maximum use of apprenticeships — along with health insurance reforms.
“Replacing the Park Avenue Viaduct is essential to Metro-North and the region and C&D is proud to be using innovative new tools to deliver it efficiently and effectively,” MTA Construction & Development President Jamie Torres-Springer said in a press release.
An MTA web page offers more project details. It estimates construction will begin in the second quarter of 2023 and conclude in 2026.
There had been weight restrictions limiting locomotive weight. I understood the viaduct had been upgraded, allowing MNR to use P32AC-DM motors which weigh 274,400 lbs.
MTA has confused things by calling this stretch of line the Park Avenue Viaduct. In general layman’s terms, the viaduct refers to the roadway between 40th and 46th Streets that carries vehicular traffic around Grand Central. That stretch of road does have a weight limit.
Will completion allow all weight restrictions to be lifted ?
What weight restrictions? This is all passenger traffic.
It’s all passenger traffic, but remember that the FL9 had to have an unusual B-A1A wheel arrangement due to weight restrictions. Interesting to see if these weight issues get resolved.