$1520M ‘tunnel to nowhere’

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 6

$1520M ‘tunnel to nowhere’

By

MARJORIE ANDERS

of Associated Press

(through NZPA) New York

The biggest public works white elephant in New York City history lies 50m under the East River, waterlogged and useless. It is a subway tunnel that in 16 years of digging and pouring concrete has cost SUSBOO million ($1520 million) and would take an additional ?US2OO million ($3BO million) to finish. Critics call it the “tunnel to nowhere.” It may never be used. Seven years after the original projected completion date, basic construction on the 63rd Street subway tunnel, just 4.18 km long, is finished. Rails have been laid, signals and switches are in place. Finishing touches are being put on the tile work and elevators in the three new stations. The tube, however, is full of water, up to 1.9 m deep in places, and engineers say it cannot be used until they figure out where the water is coming from. tunnel, blasted

through solid rock in some spots, buried under East River silt in others, is plagued with leaks. From cracks in the concrete, dripping water has formed stalactites. Pools of stagnant water raise the humidity in the tunnel to jungle intensity. In the moist air, electrical fixtures have corroded and steel beams have rusted. Mud has buried some sections of rails.

An independent firm is studying the structure and in October will recommend whether the project can be salvaged or should be scrapped. This enormous blunder is the costly remnant of a grandiose 1960 s expansion scheme that was to have added 11 routes to the New York City subway system, already the largest metropolitan transit network in the world. The project aimed to extend express service from bustling midtown Manhattan eastward under the river to the farthest reaches of the borough of Queens. The tunnel was built in two levels, with plains call-

ing for the subway to run on top and the Long Island rail road on the lower level. But when a projected expansion was trimmed back, the basement level was abandoned without proper moth, balling and water collected.’ Seepage is not the tunnel’s only problem. One of the main contractors, Schiavone Construction Company; and eight of its executives, are charged with falsifying documents to get around Federal rules that 15 per cent of the work go to a minority subcontractor. One of the executives charged, the vice president and co-owner of Schiavone, is a former United States Labour Secretary, Raymond Donovan, who resigned his Cabinet post in March to defend himself. The Metropolitan Transit Authority inspector-general, and the Federal Department of Transportation, are investigating the tunnel. An interim transportation report indicates that concrete for the tunnel may have been mixed and poured without proper inspection and testing. A new team of transit

officials is now struggling to salvage the project. In November, 1983, Robert Kiley, head of the Boston Transit System, was appointed chairman of the New York authority. In February, 1984, Mr Kiley hired David Gunn, a former aide who was then chief of Philadelphia’s system, to head the M.T.A.’s largest agency, the Transit Authority, which runs the subways and buses.

Their mandate was to improve New York’s public transportation. In a transit system plagued by track fires and derailments, graffiti and vandalism, however, the inherited tunnel was not a top priority. Mr Gunn said he did not personally inspect the tunnel until May because “I kept getting statements from the engineering people not to worry. But I was getting a different story from the operating people.” On June 17, shortly after Mr Gunn’s first tunnel tour, the top three people in the engineering department abruptly retired. Messrs and Kiley refused to

blame them directly for the tunnel fiasco. Pointing fingers was not productive, Mr Gunn said, adding that the weakness of the engineering department had taken its toll on this as well as other projects. Meanwhile, the Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration has halted its final SUS3O.3 million ($57.6 million) payment until it sees the consultants’ review. Even without the money sunk into the tunnel, the M.T.A. has a five-year capital budget of SUSB.S billion ($16.15 billion), more than the budgets of all but eight of the 50 states. More than 500 construction projects are under way, but none is as extensive as the tunnel. Last December, the M.T.A. decided to try to save the tunnel by linking it to an existing route in Queens — if the leakage problems could be overcome. This would require ?US2OO million ($3BO million), but without the change, the tunnel would serve only three subway stops with a connection to line. y F