The Second Avenue Subway, which opened on New Year’s Day, will increase accessibility of Manhattan’s east side, while reducing delays and overcrowding across the transit system.
The 2.9km stretch of track runs between 63rd and 96th streets and consists of three new stations, plus one upgraded station. The Aecom-Arup joint venture provided full engineering and architectural services for Phase 1 of the US$4.451bn (£3.5bn) project, which broke ground in April 2007.
“The on time completion of the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway is a major achievement,” said Julie D’Orazio, senior vice president and NY metro transit/rail manager at Aecom. “The engineering and design ingenuity represents our best-in-class approach to large scale transit projects.”
“The opening of the Second Avenue Subway will immediately improve the quality of life for thousands of New Yorkers,” said Arup principal Craig Covil. “Designing and delivering such a complex project required the complete collaboration and unwavering effort of a robust team of engineers and contractors, and would not have been possible without the strong leadership and vision of the MTA and the governor’s office.”
The Aecom-Arup team’s role included tunnel design. A TBM was employed to excavate the 3,900m of twin-track, 6.7m-diameter tunnels in the first phase of the Second Avenue Subway. The one expanded and three new stations on the line are some of the largest underground excavations in North America, ranging from 17.3m to 19.5m in width and up to 485m in length. Adding to the complexity of the job, these mined caverns all have escalator and elevator connections to street level.
Other tasks included geotechnical engineering, acoustics, tunnel ventilation, pedestrian modelling and taking the lead for multidisciplinary design of the four new underground stations.
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