Posted on 07/05/2020 2:03:42 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
...“I called yesterday,” Plotch told me in March. “They said they’d start building it next year.”
Not only is the Second Avenue Subway unlikely to pick up construction again next year, continuing progress of the 8.5 miles of track running down Manhattan’s east side from 125th street to Hanover Square, it’s not particularly likely to be completed in many of our lifetimes
The Second Avenue Subway, which was originally meant to include 16 stations, so far only includes three — 72nd, 86th and 96th streets. But that 1.5-mile “stubway” alone cost $4.6 billion (from an original budget for the entire project of $335 million in the mid-twentieth century), making it by far the most expensive train track in world history.
...An estimated hundreds of millions could have been saved in labor costs — traffic wardens to control the flow of cars, for example — if the streets had simply been closed
The MTA also took pains to disrupt life on the Upper East Side as little as possible, which included keeping sidewalks and streets open during construction. (Plotch likens the process to renovating your apartment while there’s an engagement party going on.)
Union rules also added to the expense. Regulations required, for instance, that the tunnel-boring machine be manned by 25 people, even though just nine were required to run a similar machine in Spain.
At one point, as many as 500 electricians were working simultaneously, each pulling down $54 an hour plus $52 an hour in benefits — $106 an hour in overtime with $70 in benefits. By the end of 2016, many of the workers were earning the equivalent of three weeks’ salary in just one week, according to the book.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Such a deal!
How many politicians got their millions from kickbacks?
Funny how subway construction basically ground to a halt as soon as the city took it over from the private operators.
subway?
they will soon be able to float
downstreet on the copper-smelling blood.
I knew an electrician who had a deal sort of like that on a Boston project. Then he got mad and punched a Union official in the mouth. Turns out you can get fired for that.
Democrats.
Everything they touch...
Rule proves correct again.
And again.
And again.
I’m sure very little of that 4.6 billion actually went to dirt-moving construction costs.
Who wudda guessed?
Not only will there be a halt in subway construction but the amount of residential and commercial construction within New York city will be less than %0% of what it was in 2018. People and businesses are leaving.
I’m no engineer or architect. But wouldn’t it be a lot easier and less disruptive to build above ground along 2nd Avenue and use that for mass transit instead of a subway line?
I know that some of the New York mass transit system is above ground. I lived in Chicago for a number of years, and most of their heavy rail mass transit is above ground , with just a small amount being subways.
Just an observation, that I don’t know if I have what it takes to be an electrician, but wow. those guys can really make Bank.
Homer Simpson was a driver in the cartoon series...someone post a photo...thanks in advance
Why build a new station when the subway breaks down regularly, in between all the other ones?
Hell for that kind of money I would have pinched myself in the face if I was that pissed off. Ha!
I doubt that any of the multi-billion dollar choo choo trains that all the democrat controlled cities and states want will ever get built either.
Of course, building new mass transit boondoggles has never been as important as getting funds to build them so that democrats can line their pockets.
” I lived in Chicago for a number of years, and most of their heavy rail mass transit is above ground , with just a small amount being subways.”
You must have noticed how ugly and noisy the ‘El’ is?
Guessing, beyond that the streets would have to be closed for extended periods. Unknown duration because no one knows what is under the streets.
What is in the ground needs to be carefully explored for placement of support piers, on top of the piers the support structure than the rails...
Now the lanes or sidewalks are constricted and goodby to you view out the front of your residence...
Two minutes and forty seconds of life near the’El’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVmK0agsUmI
“getting funds to build them so that democrats can line their pockets.”
Do not forget the wink and nod to all their union buddies for construction, maintenance, and operations...
Wait. Don't tell me. Let me guess...
It's racist???
Sounds like a Boss Tweed project.
The elevated tracks over 2nd Avenue were torn down in the 1940s to make way for the subway.
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