Second Avenue Subway starts service
4 January 2017US - A century of planning and construction reached completion on January 1 as passengers took the first rides on New York’s Second Avenue Subway.
Governor Andrew Cuomo hosted an event on December 31, 2016, to celebrate the on-time arrival of the project, which is the system’s first major expansion in more than 50 years.
“They talked about the Second Avenue Subway 100 years ago, literally, and then in the ‘40s they knocked down the elevated line that was on Second Avenue and Third Avenue because they were going to build the Second Avenue Subway,” Cuomo said.
“They just forgot to build the second avenue subway.”
He thanked all the contractors involved in the new subway project and said, “they really, really made a superhuman effort to get this done on time.”
This is the first of four phases for the Second Avenue Subway. Phase One entailed a two-track line connecting 105th Street and Second Avenue to existing services at 63rd Street and Third Avenue, with new stations at 96th, 86th and 72nd Streets.
Future Phases Two through Four will complete the line from 125th Street down to Hanover Square in lower Manhattan with 16 new stations.
A Skanska, Schiavone and Shea joint venture (S3 Tunnel Constructors) had the contract to build new tunnels between 92nd and 63rd Streets, excavation of the TBM launch box and excavation of access shafts at 69th and 72nd Streets.
